HRH The Princess Royal Addresses National Conference on Affordable Rural Housing Crisis at London Summit

English Rural and Action for Communities in Rural England (ACRE) hosted a gathering of rural champions, policymakers and rural community advocates, all determined to answer a question that affects every village in England:

“How do we keep countryside communities alive when the price of a home has drifted out of local reach and the waiting-list for social housing now stretches decades into the future?”

Why the conference matters:

▶️ The affordability gulf is widening. Rural lower-quartile house prices are 9.2 times local earnings, the worst ratio for at least a decade. (GOV.UK)
▶️ Prices have sprinted ahead of pay. Across England, house prices climbed 57 % between 2013-23, while earnings grew only 28 %. (English Rural)
▶️ Only one rural home in eleven is affordable. Just 9 % of rural dwellings are classed as affordable, compared with 19 % in urban areas.
▶️ Demand keeps piling up. More than 300,000 people are now on rural social-housing waiting lists; at the current build-rate it would take 89 years to house them all. (English Rural)
▶️ Homelessness is rising faster in the countryside than in many towns. CPRE analysis shows rough sleeping in rural areas has soared 40 % in five years. (CPRE)
▶️ Private renting has exploded. Rural districts saw an extra 450,000 rental households in the last decade—31 % growth that is heaping pressure on council budgets and services. (The Guardian)
▶️ Economic gains are tangible. Building just ten affordable rural homes injects £1.4 million into the local economy and supports 26 jobs.

Who was in the room? — the running order:

➡️ 12.00 (approx.) – Conference opening — Chair: Dame Fiona Reynolds DBE
✅ Setting the scene — Martin Collett, Chief Executive, English Rural
✅ The power & impact of affordable rural housing — Rebecca Munro, Director, Pragmatix Advisory
✅ A resident’s perspective — Pauline Rose
✅ Making change happen on the ground — Rt Revd Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, Lord Bishop of Newcastle & President of the Rural Coalition
✅ Address by HRH The Princess Royal
➡️ Break
✅ Supporting a thriving countryside: the role of Rural Housing Enablers — Corinne Pluchino (ACRE) with Laura Atkinson & Vince Walsh (RHEs)
✅ Scaling-up affordable rural house-building — Jo Lavis (Rural Housing Solutions) & Avril Roberts (CLA / English Rural)
✅ Panel Q&A (Chair: Dame Fiona Reynolds) — Roger Mortlock (CPRE); Corinne Pluchino; Martin Collett; Jo Lavis; Vince Walsh; Rebecca Munro
✅ Summing up — Dame Fiona Reynolds DBE
➡️ 15.20 (approx.) – Conference closes

From crisis to opportunity

Speakers talked about a package of reforms that could turn numbers like those above on their head:

✅ Planning passports & rural-exception sites to unlock land quickly for genuinely affordable schemes.
✅ Long-term funding for the Rural Housing Enabler network, enabling every county to broker trust between landowners, councils and residents.
✅ Community-led design that keeps construction low-carbon and homes rooted in local character, ensuring growth strengthens, rather than erodes, village life.

Expect lively exchanges on how central government, Defra, MHCLG and Homes England can work in lock-step with parish councils and housing associations to scale these ideas rapidly.

The bottom line

Rural England is at a fork in the road. Carry on as we are and soaring prices, lengthening queues and rising homelessness will hollow out village life. Pull together — as today’s speakers and delegates intend — and we could secure a future where everyone who works, studies or raises a family in the countryside can afford to call it home.