"Grow by building new homes in partnership with rural communities"
Achieving development ambitions remains one of the biggest strategic challenges. English Rural continues to prioritise growth through the rural exceptions site approach which, amongst other things, requires a willing landowner, strong enabling presence, local community support and a proactive planning authority; a combination that is not easily brought together. The impact of delays from the pandemic on progressing opportunities is also still material, with the far-reaching disruption on the development journey even now working its way through. More recently, the fluctuation in labour and material costs, alongside high levels of inflation have made achieving financial viability for some sites even more of a challenge.
Despite this difficult environment there is some good news - more new homes were completed during the year. A further review of our design and environmental standards was also completed, with building work starting on the first ever EPC A rated homes. A new Development Director was recruited, a change triggered by natural retirement plans. This has created an opportunity to refresh the leadership of the development team as we focus on achieving future growth ambitions. An immediate priority of the incoming Director was to review the future programme and explore new opportunities, the result of which will be shown with many more homes now starting on site and due for completion next year. Working with partners, including Homes England, we hope to sustain this momentum.
Although our focus will always be on delivering genuinely affordable homes, the value of the development subsidiary ER Homes Ltd remains. Through ER Homes we can unlock potential sites by generating useful cross-subsidy to invest in making the finances work. We are also able to deliver market, discounted market and self-build opportunities alongside our traditional affordable rented and shared ownership tenures. This approach helps to meet a broad range of needs evidenced within rural communities and creates diverse developments. Helpfully, ER Homes was able to gift aid £171k back to support English Rural during the year.
Affordable homes in Staple, Kent
...with a further 21 schemes in the development pipeline
>>
New affordable rural homes built and started on
Diverse programme including cross subsidy via ER Homes
Progress with delivering for other smaller housing association partners, including The Cambridgeshire Cottage Housing Society (TCCHS) and Cirencester Housing
Design and environmental standards reviewed and enhanced
Appointment of a new leadership via Development Director
Affordable rural homes in the village of Dunsfold, Surrey. Our third scheme in the village.
>> Delivery of homes through the rural exception site route continues to be challenged from the lack of land, community support, limited enabling and local authority housing priorities. Where these ingredients exist, the policy continues to deliver successfully and because of this maintaining a dynamic programme of activity over a broad geography continues to make sense.
>> The impact of labour and materials made worse by high inflation pressure and spikes to building material costs are now shown in build costs. How long these higher costs will remain is unclear, but financial viability will be an increasing pressure that will need to be understood and navigated.
