Who we are

The Hampshire Alliance for Rural Affordable Housing was formed in 2005 to address the need for affordable housing in the villages of Hampshire.

The founding members of the HARAH are the Hampshire Rural Housing Enablers (RHEs), the Homes and Communities Agency and the six rural local authorities in Hampshire. These are:

• Basingstoke and Deane
• East Hampshire
• Hart
• New Forest
• Test Valley
• Winchester

The local authorities have a strategic housing responsibility to meet housing needs and oversee the allocation of affordable housing. The Rural Housing Enablers, based at Community Action Hampshire, work closely with parish councils and local communities to facilitate the provision of affordable housing. The Homes and Communities Agency is the Government agency responsible for investing in new affordable homes across England.

Hampshire County Council joined the partnership in 2007, and the New Forest National Park Authority joined in 2009.

 

What is different about HARAH?

 HARAH was set up to make a difference to the provision of affordable housing in the villages of Hampshire. Historically many rural people have been forced to leave areas where they were brought up and have family ties, or where they work because they simply cannot afford the housing and this can lead to the erosion of communities. Whilst many successful rural housing schemes have been built in Hampshire villages, these have often taken a long time to provide, due to the difficulties of finding sites, land negotiations, obtaining funding and planning etc. HARAH was formed to help make the provision of rural affordable housing more efficient, provide housing of consistent high quality and increase the availability of funding to provide more affordable homes to local people in a shorter timescale.

 

HARAH's Development partner

HARAH has selected HydeMartlet as its development partner. This followed a comprehensive selection process in 2005 involving a number of registered housing providers. HydeMartlet was selected because it most successfully met selection criteria, including quality standards, affordability and the ability to obtain grant funding and forward-fund schemes where necessary. HydeMartlet was reappointed in October 2010 for a further 5 years following a similar selection process.

HARAH

A memorandum of understanding was drawn up in August 2005, setting out the terms of the partnership. The memorandum was revised in 2008.

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