Land News

Countryside a Playground for the Rich

Lawson Fairbank , 8th February, 2007

Unless the government is to encourage more rural housing there is a real danger of making the countryside a place for the wealthy at the expense of local people.

The stark warning came from Brian Berry, head of public policy at the RICS at the annual Sentry farming conference.

The combination of a falling supply of housing with a greater demand for rural areas has increased pressures on the countryside had been growing over recent years with hundreds of thousands of people migrating from urban to rural areas while the supply of housing had been falling, he said.

The minister for rural affairs, Lord Rooker, said there was a clear need for more affordable rural housing, with added protection for local schools, post offices and other village amenities.

"Those that seek to turn villages into chocolate box lid images are barmy beyond belief," he said.

Lord Rooker went on to say that in many cases the green belt was no more than a "rubbish belt" created to provide a cordon round urban areas.

President of the London-based Country Land and Business Association, David Fursden, said there had been some relaxation in national policy for housing developments but there was still a long way to go.

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