How we work

HARAH is different

HARAH was set up to make a difference to the provision of affordable housing in the villages of Hampshire. Many villages have the experience of local people being unable to afford to live in the places where they were brought up, work or have family connections.

Whilst many successful rural housing schemes have been built in Hampshire villages, these have often taken a long time to come about because of difficulties finding sites, the length of time taken to negotiate land, obtaining planning and securing funding. This has resulted in rural communities losing members because they have had to find housing elsewhere.

HARAH is concerned about the long-term sustainability of villages and we see our involvement as more than just building new homes.

HARAH
...makes the provision of rural affordable housing more efficient
...consistently provides high quality housing
...increases the availability of funding to provide more affordable homes in shorter timescales
...invests in the long term with local communities.

HARAH has been quoted as an example of best practice by the Housing Corporation's Future Approaches to Investment, the Affordable Rural Housing Commission's Final Report, and the Commission for Rural Communities' Making it Happen – HARAH.

Where we work

HARAH works in the villages covered by the six rural local authority areas of Hampshire. We specifically work on rural exceptions sites, where planning is only given because there is a demonstrable need for affordable housing in that area. The planning consent gained on these sites restricts the housing for local people in housing need.

Our allocations procedure explains more about the criteria residents need to meet to be considered for a HARAH scheme.

Ensuring the long term affordability of homes

One of the aims of HARAH is to have a consistent approach to exception site land values to ensure that rural housing schemes are viable and affordable.

The rents charged on affordable rented homes are capped according to the Housing Corporation's Rent Policy. Affordable rented homes on exception sites are exempt from the 'Right to Acquire', and mutual exchanges are limited to people with a local connection.

The cost of shared ownership housing can vary greatly, depending on who is the provider. One of the HARAH criteria that Hyde Housing Association has to meet on rural schemes is to make sure that the sale prices and residual rents are affordable to local people, reflecting the information from the village needs survey.

HARAH is working to ensure that the resale price is also at a price affordable to local people.

Our tenancy leaflet has information on Right to Acquire and mutual exchange.

Grant funding

In order to provide affordable rented housing, funding from the Housing Corporation is necessary. Only some housing associations meet the Housing Corporation's criteria to obtain grant for affordable housing development. HARAH, working with Hyde, has been very successful in obtaining this funding.

For the 2006-8 National Affordable Housing Programme, Hyde received £7.8m for 21 rural schemes - that's 20% of the total Regional Housing Board funding allocation for rural housing in the South East. As part of the HARAH arrangement, Hyde has agreed to use some of its resources to help fund schemes in advance until there is grant funding available.

The process - who does what

This downloadable flow chart shows who does what in the process of developing a rural affordable housing scheme.

You can also learn more about who does what from our 10-step guide to developing rural affordable housing.

The contractor partners

Hyde has carefully selected two contractor partners to specialise in building the affordable housing schemes in Hampshire villages. They are Austins and Drew Smith, both of whom have considerable experience in building rural housing.

Hyde has also selected an employer's agent - Lawson Queay Chartered Surveyors - to oversee all the HARAH schemes.

The aim of this 'contractor partnering' is to further streamline the HARAH development process by having contractors involved early in the design process by identifying technical issues, constantly learning and refining the specialised nature of the small rural schemes, therefore being ready to go on site as soon as planning is granted.

The Rural Excellence Programme

HARAH has been successful in bidding to take part in the I&DeA (Improvement and Development Agency) Rural Excellence Programme. This is a mentoring programme where both mentors and mentees from across the country share best practice, with the aim of improving capacity and service delivery in rural areas. The programme involves officers and councillors in HARAH, parish councils, New Forest National Park Authority and the Government Office for the South East.

Two stakeholder workshop days were held to identify broad priorities. These are:

- speeding up the development process and developing stronger relationships between communities and agencies, and

  • - increasing housing supply and developing a stronger relationship with sub-regional stakeholders.

    We have developed an action plan focusing on community engagement, HARAH's strategic influence with key decision-makers in Hampshire and improving the planning housing relationship in local authority areas. Click here to read the action plan.

Further Rural Excellence reading:

HARAH/I&DeA Memorandum of Understanding

The results of the most recent workshop, held in Basingstoke in June

Rural Excellence leaflet

Review and evaluation

Two of the main aims of HARAH are:

- to assess the impact and implications of providing additional affordable housing in rural villages, and

  • - to improve the deliverability of rural affordable housing schemes.


As part of the HARAH agreement, the Rural Housing Enablers will undertake impact assessments on each new rural housing development produced through HARAH, to look at how well the process worked, resident satisfaction and the impact on the local community.

HARAH has agreed performance standards with Hyde on both development and management. These are reviewed at each partnership meeting. In addition, a six-monthly review is carried out by all partners, to look at their contribution to the partnership.