Affordable homes help to stem local exodus
01.08.2006
Residents in an expensive corner of Oxfordshire moved back into their home village recently thanks to a rural housing initiative.
Eight family homes at Crays Pond, Goring Heath, have been built to help stem the exodus of young couples forced to move further afield by rocketing house prices.
The Oxfordshire Rural Housing Partnership – a consortium of Oxfordshire district councils and social landlords – moved in to help after research revealed that a small terrace house in Crays Pond would cost as much as a three-bedroom house in other parts of the Thames Valley.
Sovereign Development Consortium and Leadbitter Construction delivered the £1.1m development on behalf of the Housing Corporation, and Sovereign Development Director Phil Stephens said: “Through the partnership we were able to purchase land on the edge of the village, and design a scheme sympathetic to the local landscape. The households moving in all have village connections, some going back generations, so we’re proud to have helped to keep the community together.”
South Oxfordshire District Council spokesperson Dorothy Brown, Cabinet Member for housing said: “The Council is committed to providing affordable housing across South Oxfordshire. These properties are a wonderful example of how hard the Oxfordshire Rural Housing Partnership has worked to design a scheme that is not only beneficial to the local community but is aesthetically pleasing as well.” ”
Residents are move in earlier this year, and, over the next five years, the ORHP aims to provide 500 affordable homes in villages which have fewer than 3,000 residents. Sovereign is also underway with similar schemes in the neighbouring Vale of the White Horse.
Published 10 August 2006
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