The focus of attention has always been on urban problems, but people living in rural communities also have severe difficulty in finding affordable homes. Fewer low-cost homes are being built in rural areas in England than ever before. Only 463 have been completed so far in this financial year, compared with 2020 in 1997/98. The government figures were published in response to a question from Liberal Democrat MP Colin Breed.

The RICS research project, A Home in the Country? will examine the cost and provision of housing in rural areas. It will aim to identify steps that government and housing providers can take to ensure service workers and people who want to remain living and working in rural communities are not priced out of the area. The results of the research will be available in the spring of 2002.

RICS President, Peter Faulkner, who is a rural chartered surveyor, said: 'These figures clearly show that the building of affordable housing in rural areas has been sorely neglected. Key service workers in major towns and cities are receiving help to counter the high cost of housing, but government needs to realise that these problems are not confined to urban communities.