There is a woeful lack of affordable homes in rural areas: greater leadership from local authorities to encourage more locally-initiated sustainable development may offer a first step towards more affordable homes

Faced with a growing population, one of the most important questions facing policy makers in the UK is: Where will people live? With some waiting decades for affordable homes in some towns, this question is as important to rural areas as it is to cities. James Derounian reflects on the difficulties facing local communities in providing more affordable rural housing and suggests that greater leadership and involvement of town and parish councils with housing associations and local and regional builders, may offer some light in an otherwise dark situation.