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Sustainable Rural Communities Progress Report

Aidan Campbell (Rural Community Network) Tim Gilpin (Rural and Regeneration Manager (A)) Kelly Anderton (Rural and Regeneration Officer) Nigel Quinn (DAERA) Ben Collins (NIFHA) and Liam Lavery (DfC)
Aidan Campbell (Rural Community Network) Tim Gilpin (Rural and Regeneration Manager (A)) Kelly Anderton (Rural and Regeneration Officer) Nigel Quinn (DAERA) Ben Collins (NIFHA) and Liam Lavery (DfC)

The third Annual Report on our Rural Strategy and Action Plan, Sustainable Rural Communities for 2018/19, has now been published. 

This report sets out our activities over the past year and highlights our key achievements, which include:

  • Approximately £49.83m was invested in our rural homes where just under 18% of our housing stock is located;
  • Work commenced on 129 new social homes in rural areas, helping to address rural social housing need;
  • 9 housing need tests were completed in rural areas to examine hidden need for social and affordable housing;
  • Approximately £18.1m was invested in the maintenance and improvement of our rural housing stock;
  • Some £6.7m of Supporting People funding was provided for accommodation based and floating support services in rural areas; and
  • Rural community groups and initiatives were supported through a total investment of approximately £290,000.

At the end of the 3rd year, 8 actions in the Strategy have been completed in full and encouraging progress continues on 35 of the 36 remaining actions.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been involved in the delivery of our Rural Strategy in 2018/19 and look forward to maintaining that collaborative approach, as we strive to continue to improve our services in rural areas during the final year of the Strategy.

If you would like to receive a hard copy of the report please contact our Rural and Regeneration Unit at rural.housing@nihe.gov.uk or on (028)95982764.