Housebuilding on farmland: the distributional effects in rural areas: Fid-Bau Portal

Housebuilding on farmland: the distributional effects in rural areas

Shucksmith, Mark / Watkins, Lynn

AbstractConcern over EC food surpluses and the cost of the CAP has led to a fundamental change in agricultural policy, signalling reductions in price support, the encouragement of farm diversification and incentives for taking land out of agricultural production. At the same time, land availability for housing has become a major political issue because of the projected increase in households, especially in the south-east, and also because of increasingly widespread housing problems in rural areas. Ministers have acknowledged in particular the worsening plight of the low-income rural household. The coincidence of these two problems has led to the ameliorating suggestion that more surplus-producing farmland might be released for housing. This paper explores the effects of such a conversion of land use on different social groups in the countryside, through an assessment of the housing market implications of three planning scenarios. The main questions investigated concern who will gain access to consume new rural housing and who will profit from its production.