Lack of affordable housing could undermine the future of the countryside, bishop warns

The 50 per cent cut in capital investment for affordable homes, announced in last week’s comprehensive spending review, could leave nearly half a million rural households without housing in the next quarter of a century – and risks a reversal in the hard-won five year fall in homelessness, the Rt Rev Dr Alan Smith, Bishop of St Albans, will tell leading thinkers on rural economies, planning, policy and mission in rural communities, next week.