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Article: Spoiling the house for a ha'porth of tar. (rural housing)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- April 16, 1988
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1988 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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TREASURY pettifogging is holding back an ingenious scheme to build low-cost village houses. Loss to the countryside: 250 privately financed houses a year-a lot by rural standards. Saving to the public purse: 1125,000.
Cheap rural housing is vanishing in south England, and little is being built new: few councils want to build, and nearly all housing associations concentrate on towns. Rural lobbying won some extra Housing Corporation funds this year; the associations, which it finances, will build 280 village houses. But a body called the NAC Rural Trust had another answer- shared ownership.
This in itself is no novelty. A housing association, for ...