You might be forgiven for thinking that we had given up on our mission to provide some genuinely affordable housing in Horsted Keynes for those with a close connection to the village, i.e. who lived here, who have close relatives that live here, or who work here. It has been a long time since we communicated with you, but we are still here and, although we have not found a suitable site so far, the need for genuinely affordable housing at about 60% of market prices in Horsted Keynes is more acute than ever.
This has been confirmed by a recent review of “Affordability in Horsted Keynes - 2022” carried out by Action in Rural Sussex, which concluded the following:
“From the analysis it can be seen that compared to both the mean and median incomes for the Mid Sussex District there is a clear affordability gap between income and the cost of buying lower quartile property in Horsted Keynes.
In our experience the need for locally affordable housing is felt most acutely by those seeking one- and two-bedroom properties – the usual entry level property type. Of the sales over the past 12 months – there were no one bedroom properties and only seven 2-bedroom properties for sale.
There were 9 x 1 bedroom rented properties and 13 x 2 bedroom rented properties on the market. The income required for these, was much higher than the median income, and the lowest rent for one-, two- and four-bedroom properties was higher than the Local Housing Allowance limits – potentially rendering them unaffordable to those on lower incomes seeking to rent.”
The full report can be viewed here:
There has been a lot going on over the last couple of years with Neighbourhood and District Planning issues and, despite the desperate need for affordable housing, it has not felt like the right time to be promoting a Community-led Housing Scheme. However, there is now a bit more certainty around what housing is likely to be delivered in our parish and, although there is little that can now be done to change the site allocations that are being made by MSDC, what we can be sure of is that the ‘affordable’ housing element at about 80% of market prices in these developer-led proposals will do little to solve the acute lack of genuinely affordable housing in our parish. That is why we are still very keen to come up with a small scheme on a suitable site.
We will be in touch again as soon as we have more information to share with you but do contact us if you would like to know more or think you might be able to help us at: