Rural housing

Unfortunately, this puts pressure on the district's housing as families from London and elsewhere compete for properties in the area and push up prices.

In 2008, the Chichester District was ranked as the 18th most expensive area for average house prices in the UK.  This means that home ownership remains beyond the reach of many residents on rural wages. Rural communities are dwindling as residents find they have to move away from the area to find affordable housing. 

Other issues affecting the availability of rural housing include:

• the impact of the Right to Buy on the council's housing stock
• strict planning controls restricting opportunities for new housing developments
• a reduction in housing stock as cottages are converted to holiday lets or second homes

Chichester District Council believes that the provision of affordable rural housing is essential in order to keep families together and rural communities thriving.  It is only by maintaining populations in rural villages that local schools, shops, pubs and churches can survive.

Across the district, we have an annual target to deliver 150 new-build affordable homes. At least 25 of these must be in rural areas.  In order to achieve these targets, the council works with a number of Registered Providers (the name for a housing association or Registered Social Landlord) to deliver these new rural homes.

We have set up the Chichester Rural Housing Partnership with HydeMartlet to deliver 125 new rural homes before 2013.  HydeMartlet is the district council's appointed Rural Development Partner.  Other Registered Providers do work in rural areas, but this is mainly on larger housing developments which have a proportion of affordable housing.

If you want to find out more about affordable housing in the district, take a look at our Finding an affordable home pages.