ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the rural housing issues as they appear both to the suppliers (whether public or private) and the consumers of rural housing. The concern with providing housing for younger couples, particularly those with local connections, has resulted in the preferred strategy concentrating essentially upon new construction, especially of low-cost housing, given sufficient resources. Under the Housing Act 1974, local authorities may pay four types of grant for private house improvement – improvement grants, intermediate (formerly standard) grants, special grants and repairs grants. The chapter reviews the interaction of local planning and housing policies in terms of the context set by local and village plans. Clearly local plans, given the comparatively restrictive role of interpreting and further defining existing policies, have a limited influence upon the location and availability, and thereby indirectly on the price, of rural housing.
