Rural Communities
North Hertfordshire District Council has an important role as community leader as well as service provider and employer.
Rural Strategy
North Hertfordshire's rural areas are recognised as providing a valuable and rich heritage to the district, with settlements ranging from small hamlets to villages approaching the size of small towns. The district contains 35 parished areas and nearly a quarter of the district’s population live outside the four towns of Hitchin, Letchworth Garden City, Baldock and Royston.
Our first rural strategy was published in 1988 and then revised in 2005. A year long process to produce a new Rural Strategy was started at the Parish and Town Councils' Conference in July 2009. The same event agreed that the Parish Charter should be included in the same document. The Parish Charter sets out how the District, County and Parish Councils, plus partner agencies, will work together to mutual benefit and agreed timescales to bring about change and improvement in rural areas.
Following discussion of a draft at the Council's Cabinet there was a period of public consultation between 27th July and 30th September 2010. The comments from this were added to those from the three relevant area committees and were considered before the strategy and charter were agreed by the Cabinet on 7th December 2010.
The strategy shows what we want to achieve as resources become available and it adds a rural dimension to the Sustainable Community Strategy. The Council's work with rural areas will continue to evolve and adapt to changing circumstances.
Rural Strategy and Parish Charter 2010-2015 (2.26Mb) 
Affordable rural housing: A guide for parish councils
The National Housing Federation's Rural Housing Alliance has produced a guide specifically for parish councils about each stage of the rural housing development process and how parish councils can get involved. The guide should help answer some frequently asked questions about affordable rural housing and the development process and champions the role that parish and town councils play.
Affordable Rural Housing: A practical guide for parish councils (3.9Mb)
The National Housing Federation support and promote the work that housing associations do and campaigns for better housing and neighbourhoods in England.
Parish Housing Needs Surveys
The Council supplements data from the district wide housing needs surveys with more localised information from surveys carried out in individual parishes. Further information is avaiable on our housing pages 
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