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 Homes and Communities Agency'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.

How to apply for a home

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 Homes and Communities Agency'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 Homes and Communities Agency is necessary. Only some housing associations meet the Homes and Communities Agency 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, HydeMartlet 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, HydeMartlet 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

HydeMartlet 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

In 2007, HARAH was successful in bidding to take part in the I&DeA (Improvement and Development Agency) Rural Excellence Programme. This was a programme where those involved in providing rural affordable housing from across the country shared best practice. It involved the Government Office for the South East, Homes and Communities Agency and parish councils as well as HARAH members.

The overall aim of the programme was to increase the supply of affordable rural housing.
It focussed on:
- 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.

A number of initiatives have been launched and action taken as a result of HARAH being part in the programme, including:

- promoting the cause of rural affordable housing throughout Hampshire.
- producing a 'statrer pack' which helps guide communities through the process of providing affordable housing
launching a Members' Board, made up of senior political representatives from the constituent local authorities.
- increasing the security of funding for Rural Housing Enablers.
- broadening the partnership to include Hampshire County Council and New Forest National Park Authority.

All of this is helping to increase the provision of affordable housing for local people in rural communities.

The final report of the programme can be viewed here.

Review and evaluation

In April 2007 HARAH commissioned Rural Housing Solutions to undertake an evaluation of its work to seek to answer whether HARAH was meeting its objectives and help identify its future challenges.

The main objective considered was whether HARAH had improved the supply, quality and value for money of rural affordable housing in Hampshire.

The conclusions highlight the positive outcomes: a higher profile for rural affordable housing;
a political commitment to its delivery, and an increased certainty of delivery for the schemes progressed.

The concerns raised include the low levels of delivery and the slowness of the process.

Barriers identified that lie behind the problems include:
- difficulties identifying and securing sites
- high levels of community opposition to affordable housing schemes.

Some of the recommendationsmade in the report are:
- to adopt a plan-led approach  to providing rural affordable housing through the Local Development Frameworks
- to consider how to increase capacity to support the strategic role of HARAH
- to create a balance between the engagement of communities and the implementation of the strategic role to meet housing need.

HARAH has responded positively to the recommendations and has come up with an action plan. Two of the areas of action are to set out a communications strategy and plan and to adopt a project planning approach to monitor projects.

HARAH Business Plan and Communications Strategy

The HARAH Business Plan and Communications Strategy have been written and agreed by the HARAH Members Board to address the issues and challenges set out in the Evaluation. The Business Plan can be viewed here and the Communications Strategy here. The plan and strategy have been equality impact assessed. The Assessment Report and Improvement Plan has been validated and can be viewed here.