Your community

Developing schemes with rural communities

HARAH’s purpose is to work with the rural communities of Hampshire to provide quality affordable housing and build sustainable communities.

It is important to have evidence of the housing needs of local people for both obtaining planning consent and the funding of rural schemes. This information may be available from the local authority housing register. Alternatively, the Rural Housing Enablers may work with parish councils to undertake a survey of the whole parish to establish the unique needs of each rural community. A standard questionnaire is used to ensure the robust validity of the results. The housing register information together with the village housing needs survey will indicate the amount and type of affordable housing that is specifically required in each village.

The process of developing the new affordable homes, including finding the most appropriate site, is undertaken with ongoing consultation and involvement of the parish council and local people. This may involve consultation events, and attending parish council meetings.

Another method for gathering evidence of need and involving local people is through community-led planning. This process involves using a mix of evidence collection, different types of consultation and debate at the very local neighbourhood level. It is designed to be a process in which each and every citizen can participate and results in very high levels of participation. It celebrates positive features and activities, highlights local priorities and contains a detailed action plan that can be taken on by public service providers and the local community itself. More information about parish plans can be found on the ACRE website. To find out more about community-led planning in the HARAH area, please contact Jo Dixon at Community Action Hampshire on 01962 857354 or joanna.dixon@action.hants.org.uk.

Interested in getting a HARAH scheme going in your area?

If you're interested in finding out about getting a HARAH scheme in your area, please contact your parish council or the Hampshire Rural Enablers. You can also read the HARAH 10-step guide to developing rural affordable housing.

Working with residents to build communities

Resident involvement does not stop once a scheme is built. We want residents to enjoy where they live and to feel they are part of a lasting community.

We work with residents from the time they are allocated their home by the council.

• We arrange open days at the properties to give residents the opportunity to get to know their home and to help them plan for practical things like carpets and furniture. Each resident has a detailed handover, ensuring they know how the property works, understand particular features of the scheme and have the contact details for their housing officer. We follow this up with a visit to them in their new home less than a month after moving in, to see how they are settling in.

We believe it is vital to create a community spirit very early on with new developments. That's why we hold 'welcome to your new home' events for residents to get to know one another and the HARAH partners.

Each new development has specific areas including car parking and gardens. We work with residents to agree how they will use and look after open spaces, and how they will treat each other. Residents are encouraged and supported to form residents' associations.

As HydeMartlet is the development partner for HARAH there maybe local circumstances where another housing association takes on the management of the homes. In these cases HARAH will require the same high standards to be met in the services to residents.

Hyde Plus working with HARAH

Hyde Plus is about working with residents and the wider community in which they live. By linking with Hyde Plus, HARAH can offer the rural communities of Hampshire a little bit more than just good management of homes.

Our approach is to work alongside local people and develop relationships, to understand local needs and identify priorities. Our experience shows that local solutions developed by local people are well received, sustainable and make a lasting difference. Hyde Plus will commit time to work with residents and assess and respond to the needs of new and existing communities.

Impact assessments

When a scheme is completed and residents are settled in, we undertake an impact assessment to examine if the scheme is meeting their needs and expectations. This involves consulting with residents, the parish council and other members of the local community on factors including whether they think the homes have proven to be affordable, are eco friendly and make a positive contribution to the local area. You can see a sample consultation poster here. We use the feedback to make adjustments to the scheme itself where this is possible as well as to inform other schemes we are planning.