How can housing associations work with local communities to deliver homes and infrastructure in rural areas?

In reaction to this year’s Rural Housing Week, Mike Cramp, head of development at Hastoe Housing Association, discusses how the sector can evolve and enhance their approach to collaboration with rural communities. 

Imagine a rural housing scheme achieved with the support of the local community, of a scale and form in keeping with the local area, and that makes a positive contribution towards local infrastructure.

This is not just a utopian vision for the future, but something housing associations should all be seeking to achieve today.

Rural areas need more affordable housing and improved infrastructure alongside it. But the reality is more nuanced than that. The real challenge isn’t just delivery, it’s making sure what gets built actually works for the people and places it’s intended to serve. 

For housing associations, if we treat rural housing as a product to deliver, we’ll struggle. If we treat it as something to help shape rural communities alongside them, the outcomes tend to land far better.

Community engagement

This is the first step towards genuinely understanding what communities need and want.

Engagement with the local community often starts long before a housing association even becomes involved. A neighbourhood plan may have been formed, enabling residents of the local community to relay what they feel their community needs, and Rural Housing Enablers meet with local stakeholders interested in delivering affordable housing and talk to them about the different models that are available.

You only really get to understand existing communities by engaging locally. This includes spending time with parish councils, community groups and residents. This kind of engagement shifts the focus away from more generic ‘affordable units’ towards how the right mix of homes, in the right place, for the people who actually need them, can be introduced. In rural areas, that specificity matters.

There can be a tendency to treat consultation as a milestone event, as something to complete once a scheme is already formed. In rural communities, that approach is rarely effective. If we’re serious about delivering appropriate homes, engagement needs to happen earlier and feel truly meaningful. That means involving communities at the point where decisions are still open around matters like site selection, layout, design and tenure mix.

Local insight is often more valuable than we give it credit for. It will flag issues you won’t pick up elsewhere, such as flooding patterns, how space is actually used and the impact on local services. It can also shape softer elements like how a scheme will feel, which often determines how well it will be received. Importantly, it builds trust between the housing association and the local community.

Treating housing and infrastructure delivery equally

In rural areas, housing doesn’t exist in isolation. Even a small development can have a noticeable impact on infrastructure, on services and on the wider community.

Housing can be seen as a drain on local infrastructure, but the right housing, in the right place, can be a strong facilitator for infrastructure being sustained and creating demand for future enhancements. New homes can help sustain local schools, shops and services - but only if they’re aligned properly. 

Housing associations, working alongside local communities, parish councils and local authorities, must think more broadly. Alongside understandable housing considerations, thoughts should be centred around what a place needs to remain viable and vibrant. The shift from site-based thinking to place-based thinking is critical in the rural context.

Considering appropriate design and scale

Design in rural areas isn’t just an aesthetic question, it’s about local ‘fit’. Rural communities are often highly attuned to change and schemes that ignore context tend to face resistance. Standard house types, reused from one site to the next, will rarely respond to the local vernacular of rural areas.

Scale is just as important. Large developments are rarely appropriate in rural settings. Smaller and carefully planned schemes are generally more successful. They’re easier to integrate and are more likely to reflect genuine local housing need.

The challenge of course is that smaller schemes can be harder to deliver. Land can be scarce, viability tighter and progress slower. This is where housing associations, with a longer-term, sector-focused view, are better placed to navigate those constraints and prioritise the right outcome over the easiest one.

Working creatively with local stakeholders 

Land is often the biggest barrier in rural areas. Unlocking it requires a different approach, one that’s rooted in relationships as much as process. Building trust with landowners, working with local stakeholders to identify suitable rural exception sites and exploring alternative models like community land trusts can all play a part in the unlocking process.

Many local authorities now permit a small proportion of open market housing on rural exception sites, where it can be proven to be needed to deliver the scheme. This can provide cross-subsidy towards the affordable housing, as well as provide a wider range of tenures. For landowners who are unwilling to release their land at a rural exception site premium, this can also incentivise them to release their land, in exchange for receiving a proportion of the site with the benefit of open market planning permission. 

Community-led housing also provides a solution. When local people are directly involved in shaping a new development, the result is usually more aligned with local need. Housing associations can support this process by providing sector expertise, funding pathways and long-term management, to help turn local ambition into deliverable outcomes. 

Building long-term relationships

Rural delivery is heavily shaped by trust. Communities remember what’s worked and what hasn’t.

Housing association work doesn’t stop when new homes are constructed and occupied. They ensure that residents have points of contact for any issues they may experience and that their homes remain well-maintained. Future schemes that give equal priority to homes and infrastructure, and the impact they have within local communities, become easier to deliver because there’s a solid track record to build on.

This isn’t just about organisational reputation, it’s about consistency, trust and credibility. In rural areas, those things really do matter.