NHF: Lack of affordable housing fuelling mass closures of village shops and pubs, campaign groups warn

Monday, 22 June 2009 12:00 AM

Up to 650 country pubs and 400 village shops will close over the next 12 months - as traditional village life in Britain is plunged into terminal decline by a chronic shortage of affordable housing, according to a coalition of leading campaign groups.

The National Housing Federation has joined forces with the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) and the Rural Shops Alliance (RSA) to highlight the alarming number of shops and pubs closing down in rural areas - as they called for urgent action to be taken to halt the demise of the countryside.

Across Britain, the BBPA estimates 54 country pubs could close a month if current trends continued, while the RSA forecasts 33 village shops a month could go out of business - ripping the heart out of community life in hundreds of villages across the country.

The RSA warned the scale of the closures was "unprecedented" - and said around 1,200 shops had already closed in rural areas over the last two years, while the BBPA said over 600 pubs shut last year in the British countryside and warned there was little sign the dramatic decline was slowing down.

The Federation said the mass closures reflected a declining demand for services in villages where local families - the core customer base - had been priced out of the area by an influx of wealthy commuters and second home owners.

The gentrification of the countryside and chronic shortage of affordable homes have also made it increasingly difficult for pubs and shops to find workers who can afford to live locally and survive on modest wages.

The number of people on waiting lists for an affordable home in rural England has rocketed to 750,000.

The Federation, which represents England's housing associations, estimates around 100,000 new affordable homes need to be built in England alone to meet demand in rural areas over the next 10 years.

The Federation is calling on local authorities in rural areas to draw up action plans to address the housing needs of their communities.

Rural house prices tend to be well above the national average, while rural incomes are well below the national average - and this affordability gap has widened rather than narrowed over the last five years.

But a shortage of suitable land, a failure to assess local housing needs and local opposition often means the affordable homes which are desperately needed are never built.

A recent study by the Federation found a lack of affordable homes in rural areas was driving thousands of young people from the countryside to urban areas every year - with villages become increasingly populated by older people.

Federation chief executive David Orr said: "If the local pub and shop disappear from a village, it rips the heart out of community life.

"Many villages are now in real danger of losing their unique identity. They are becoming holiday zones preserved for tourists and second home owners, which close down for business in the winter.

"Affordable housing lies at the centre of the battle to save traditional village life. Unless we build more affordable homes for local people, they will continue to be priced out of rural areas and the shops and pubs they support will vanish with them.

"To save the countryside, we believe that all rural housing authorities must carry out a comprehensive assessment of affordable housing need every three years, and follow this up with a plan to deliver new homes."

Mark Hastings, Director of Communication for the BBPA, said: "Much loved community pubs are right at the heart of village life. They are also a key part of our heritage and a huge draw for tourism. All too often, pubs are one of the last community facilities in many villages. Across a range of fronts, we badly need policies from the Government that support pubs."

Ken Parsons, Chief Executive of the Rural Shops Alliance, said: "A rural village that loses its shop or its pub becomes a diminished place as a result. The community becomes more fragmented once its central focus has disappeared. This year hundreds of communities are finding out the hard way what this means for them. Village pubs are closing at an unprecedented rate, whilst the number of shop closures is also running at a very high level.

"This should be a clear wake-up call for both central government and the Regional Development Agencies to see the importance and urgency of the issue. Once these shops and pubs have closed, most are gone for good - only a small proportion will ever be revived".

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