The Affordable Rural Housing Commission unveiled a series of recommendations to boost the number of affordable rural homes on 17 May 2006.

A minimum of 11,000 affordable houses were needed each year across rural England if communities were to thrive, it warned ministers.

Two years have passed since the report

More private development was needed in rural areas – both to provide the first rung on the property ladder and to generate cross subsidy that could help pay for the extra affordable housing.

In its official response, the government pledged “rapid action” to encourage the construction of more affordable rural homes.

But two years on, the Commission for Rural Communities has warned that the report's recommendations have still not been fully implemented.

"Although some of the essential elements have been put in place, there are still key gaps which need to be addressed," said a commission spokesman.

These gaps are highlighted in an Assessment of the implementation of the Affordable Rural Housing Commission’s recommendations.

They include a lack of government resources to help build the skills and capacity of local authorities and communities to build more affordable homes.

Regional assemblies and the planning inspectorate have yet to take a positive and proactive response to rural affordable housing, says the commission document.

Action was still needed by the Treasury , the government's Homes and Communities Agency and local authorities to encourage the release of public and private land for rural affordable housing.

In what appears to be a partial explanation for the lack of action, the government's affordable rural housing website says some of the commission's recommendations challenged existing practice.

"Many of the solutions recommended fell within the context of a range of ongoing mainstream interventions," it adds.

"Ministers took the view that a formal point-by-point response would provide little more than a quickly dated snapshot within the context of this dynamic scenario."

Instead, Defra and the Department for Communities and Local Government decided to develop an "on-going web based progress report" to keep stakeholders up to date with developments.

An introductory page says the government's affordable rural housing website will be updated every three months. But the last update was listed as December 2007 when the site was accessed on 27 May 2008.

                  See also:
                                • Councils need 'more support for homes' (8 April 2008)
                                • Landowners in plea to convert buildings (7 April 2008)
                                • Brown 'to propose cheap rural homes' (31 March 2008)
                                • Government defends record on housing (27 February 2008)
                                • Appeal for evidence on rural housing (18 February 2008)
                                • Warning over affordable rural homes (23 November 2007)
                                • Get tough on second homes, PM told (18 November 2007)
                                • Call to boost affordable rural homes (18 October 2007)
                                • £10.2bn boost for affordable homes (16 October 2007)
                                • Watchdog welcomes housing pledge (13 July 2007)
                                • Civil servants debate housing crisis (11 July 2007)
                                • Councils 'could provide more homes (3 July 2007)
                                • PM Brown says homes are priority (27 June 2007)
                                • Pressure builds over rural housing (8 June 2007)

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