Good morning,

Many of our rural homes are being bought for retirement or holiday purposes and our rural communities are losing young working families. In many places these communities and their facilities are dying.

Rural Exception Sites allow for the building of affordable homes for local families, some of which can be let at discounted rents or be sold for shared ownership with a housing association. All of these houses must remain affordable for ever.

Sites are limited to a maximum of fifteen houses but local need has to be identified. Many Local Authorities require need to be established with an expensive Housing Needs Survey which do not define real need. However Mid Devon District Council (and there may be others) are now using numbers on their Housing Waiting List to define need.

Many of us have a plot of land, perhaps next to a village, that we don’t really need. If we gift it to a Housing Association, they can build affordable homes that will still be delivering long after we have moved on. Because the land is being gifted, the Housing Association will put money into the community pot for the benefit of everybody.

We come into the world with nothing and that is how we shall leave. If we can have fun along the way, we are very fortunate. Likewise, if we can help others, we are doubly fortunate.

Anonymous