Celebrating the opening of the new Curdridge rural affordable housing scheme
This scheme of 8 new affordable homes in Curdridge Parish is prioritised for households in housing need with a local connection to the Curdridge Parish and the close surrounding area.
The scheme is due to complete in August 2025.
As the Action Hampshire Rural Housing Enabler for the scheme – my role was to work with communities, parish councils to promote rural affordable housing and assess the housing needs in Curdridge as well as helping them to find potentially suitable sites for development.
This scheme has taken 15 years from its first start. The project began in 2010/2011 when the Parish Council invited myself and an officer from the Housing Team at Winchester City Council to a meeting to talk about affordable housing. I was asked to research the housing need for Curdridge and help the Parish Council search for suitable sites. The project was temporarily put on hold for a few years whilst the Parish Council carried out a Parish Plan.
The scheme restarted in 2016, and the housing need and sites appraisal was updated. Landowners were then contacted to find out if sites were available. Other work included organising a sites and design community consultation events in partnership with the Parish Council, Housing Association and Local Authority to advise the community on the sites that were being considered. The events were used to update the housing need and tell people interested in the new homes how to register. These events were important to engage with the community and demystify any fears that they may have.
The main organisations involved were Curdridge Parish Council, Winchester City Council, Hastoe Housing Association, the landowner Rob Medway, and the Rural Housing Enabler at Action Hampshire.
The stages in the process are:
- The Parish Council/Community identify a need for affordable housing and seek assistance.
- A Housing Need Assessment is carried out. Followed by site appraisals to identify a suitable site in conjunction with the Parish Council and Local Authority
- Designs for the homes are produced by the Housing Association. A public Consultation Event is held, alongside preapplication discussions with the Local Authority Planning Department
- Planning Permission and funding are obtained by the Housing Association and construction begins. Once complete the homes will be allocated to someone with a local connection to the area.
- The scheme is celebrated with an opening event for local people and residents invited alongside neighbouring Parish Councils who may also be interested in developing a scheme.
How the schemes benefits households and the community
Rural Affordable Housing is important to the prosperity of rural communities.
These communities are made up of all types of people, including those earning good incomes and those on lower and average incomes High house prices and high private rents in rural areas has meant that it is becoming increasingly difficult for many people on lower incomes to be able to afford to stay in their villages when their circumstances change, such as losing a job, relationship breakdown or being unable to afford the mortgage or rent. This harder when there are fewer properties in these locations to move to.
In some rural areas in Hampshire, average house prices can be 10-15 times average earnings.
This shows how difficult it can be to remain within a rural community. Providing a few homes in these rural communities can make a difference and can mean that those who live and work can stay where they grew up and be close to and support family members.
The work of the Curdridge scheme took almost 15 years and so the community had plenty of time to get used to the idea a scheme was coming.
To summarise my role…
The Rural Housing Enabler’s role is to work with the Parish Council throughout the process but mainly in the early stages where we are proving the housing need, search for a site and willing landowner and making sure all partners to the process are engaging.
