Renting in the countryside is outpacing London and other cities as house prices rise, a study finds
Rising house prices in the English countryside have pushed more than half a million people into renting over the past decade, a new report has found.
Who is renting affordable housing in her home village of North Cerney, told the BBC that if she had bought locally it would have cost her around half a million pounds - "Standard for the Cotswolds".
"You will probably need to rely on friends and family, possibly sofa-surfing, inappropriate rentals - people are living in caravans, insecure housing, garages - or hoping eventually for affordable housing to come through," she explained.
The new report by the County Councils Network warned that the number of households in private and social rental properties in rural areas has increased by 550,000 between 2011 and 2021.It found that rented properties - both social and private - now make up almost one third of all housing in England's county council regions.
In private renting, there had been a 31% rise - higher than London's increase of 25%. The report also found that property prices in those counties are the most unaffordable in England outside of London, with the average price now more than £309,000, that waiting lists for council housing in the countryside increased by 10% between 2018 and 2023 and that temporary accommodation use was up by 52% over the last five years.
Richard Clewer, the CCN's housing and planning spokesperson, said: "It is widely accepted that the housing crisis is one that is worsening, with rising unaffordability locking hundreds of thousands out of getting onto the property ladder.
The CCN is calling for government to set out a new plan for rural housing, with a greater focus on social housing and a review of the right-to-buy policy that has seen affordable rental properties taken off the market.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said it was putting £10bn towards boosting housing supply and £11.5bn into providing more affordable homes.
"We are committed to creating a fair housing system that works for everyone in both urban and rural areas, including increasing first-time buyer numbers in all regions and boosting availability of new, genuinely affordable housing," she said.
'I didn't know about rural social housing'.