In Oxfordshire’s rural communities, the market for housing has become divorced from local people and their incomes and serves primarily second and holiday homeowners and retirees, who have far more to spend on housing than local workers. Those unable to access homeownership, and with a shrinking stock of social housing in rural areas, have to turn to the private rented sector, where costs are high and tenancies insecure. With more intense competition for these homes, young people and families are priced out of rural communities entirely – forced to move away from friends, families and jobs. Many rural communities struggle to fill vacancies and many communities struggle to maintain services such as local schools, pubs and shops.  Lack of affordable homes threatens the social fabric of rural life.