Housing is in the headlines this week with figures released which show a downturn in applications for new housing in the final quarter of the year.

It provided an important reminder of another development in housing – the launch of the BIMBY toolkit.

Now, most of us will know the term NIMBY and what it stands for – Not in my Back Yard – but BIMBY turns the idea on its head and offers communities a means of getting their vision of what they consider beautiful into the planning system.

The Beauty in my Back Yard toolkit is a simple and practical online tool designed to give both certainty to house builders, who can be sure of their housing’s popularity, whilst also granting security to the community and local authority that new building projects will tie in with local preferences and needs.

The project was launched at an event last week by the Prince’s Foundation for building community at which the CLA was invited to speak about housing in rural areas.

The bottom line is that in 90 per cent of rural areas the average cost of buying a house is eight times the average wage. So, we say the key to this debate is to recognise the housing crisis in a rural context rather than seeking to apply broad brush or urban focused arguments to rural areas. Our circumstances are different but they are no less severe.

Housing is essential to support rural employment, sustain our communities and our local - and often vulnerable - economies.

CLA Deputy President Ross Murray told the conference that the greatest challenge was the mindset of land use planning. The local plan process, he said, is expensive, litigious and divisive – the BIMBY toolkit was a welcome step forward which in time could be considered as marriage guidance for the built heritage.

Wise words indeed because for many landowners and farmers affordable housing in rural areas is an integral part of their long term business plan.

The stewardship of the countryside will always have agriculture at its heart, alongside protecting our heritage and the environment. But this is not a passive role, rather an active business involving risk and investment and a long-term inter-generational view.

We work and live within and alongside our communities – but there is little point creating employment opportunities unless there are the families living within those communities who can fill the jobs. That is why the emphasis on quality design and community engagement offered by the BIMBY toolkit is so important. It can only increase acceptability and ultimately help provide society’s housing needs.

“It has been said we should use the toolkit to build beautiful places. I say we will need to build beautiful places in beautiful places. Change is constant and it is inevitable that society will require more housing in greenbelts, on the edges of towns and villages, in hamlets and on farms, and even in National Parks. That is all a given. It is how we do it which is the challenge,” said Mr Murray.

Perhaps the underlying message of this toolkit is that the promoter of housing, whether the landowner or builder, must never be too proud to ask his or her community for their view and engage them in the process and the converse is that communities must use the process of engagement to understand the needs of the promoter, the risks and challenges.