Rural housing: Five minutes with Matthew Dodd

As part of a series of articles featuring our work in rural areas this week, we spoke to the HCA’s Rural and Communities Manager, Matthew Dodd about his work with partners.

What does your role involve?
I help ensure that the HCA maintains a focus on delivering affordable housing in rural areas and working with local authorities to help create thriving rural communities.

How do you achieve this?
Mainly by maintaining regular contact with stakeholders, through the Rural Housing Advisory Group (RHAG) and by working with Government, the National Housing Federation (which is organising a week of activity on rural housing across the South of England from today), Campaign for the Protection of Rural England and, of course, registered providers. I also speak regularly about rural issues at conferences across the country.

Why is it important to ‘focus’ on rural housing?
Affordability in rural areas is a major issue. The impact of lower average earnings combined with higher house prices creates significant challenges for communities, which can lead to the break-up up of family ties and other networks. This can result in communities becoming less diverse and unsustainable, as businesses close and people move away. That’s why we are working to address this issue.

What projects particularly good examples of the Agency’s work?
Key projects include community-led schemes, led by groups of local people to deliver housing and facilities for their areas. These include Community Land Trust schemes in Buckland Newton, Dorset, which is about to complete, and High Bickington, Devon, which is progressing well.

Another excellent scheme involves a Passivhaus development delivered by Hastoe Housing Association in Wimbish, Essex – the first such rural scheme in the UK.

What are the key challenges in the years ahead?
Working with local providers to ensure that those remote (or hard to reach) parts of the country can still get the housing they need. The CLT movement may have a significant role to play in this area.

For more about the HCA's work on rural housing visit our rural housing web page.