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At Fairhive, we take pride in contributing to developing new rural housing. We operate across a geography of many more villages and market towns than large towns or cities, making it crucial for us to support the vitality of these smaller communities. Rural housing allows young people to remain in their hometowns as they establish their households and is essential for sustaining local amenities such as schools, shops, and community groups.

Our Executive Director of Development, Julie Porter emphasised, “The need for more rural housing is evident. An article from CPRE earlier this year highlighted that a chronic lack of affordable rural housing is causing homelessness and forcing people out. Research shows that building just 10 affordable homes in a rural area generates £1.4 million for the economy and supports an average of 26 jobs.”

Since 2020, we have delivered 195 rural homes across 20 developments in 18 villages throughout Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. Many of these villages are not connected to the main gas network, leading us to adopt Air Source Heat Pumps for heating and hot water in our new builds. 7 of these 20 developments feature Air Source Heat Pumps, and many also include Electric Vehicle charging points.

Highlighting Our Partnership with Rectory Homes

Over the past four years, we have worked on five rural housing developments across Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire with local developer Rectory Homes. Together, these schemes deliver 27 homes for rent and shared ownership.

Julie added: “Partnerships with local developers such as Rectory Homes are so important to us in being able to deliver new rural homes and offering local people an affordable way of remaining in their communities where they might otherwise be priced out.”

George Bethell-Vickers, Associate Land Director at Rectory Homes added, “Rectory Homes is committed to delivering legacy developments in rural locations throughout the Home Counties. We partner with Registered Providers who share our values to build on existing communities sensitively and deliver much-needed new private and affordable housing and infrastructure to areas that would otherwise decline without investment. Rural communities need facilities but also need people to use them to thrive. New housing, designed and built well, can blend into communities, support local employment, and provide economic benefit.”   

We are committed to providing rural housing and collaborating with partners to make this possible. You can find more examples of our work on our New Developments page.