A BODY representing rural landowners says a chance to solve the "rural housing crisis" has been severely limited by changes to planning rules.

The CLA is warning that "lack of flexibility" in new planning policy will prevent a mix of affordable and market homes from being built on special sites in the countryside.

It says the Government has published a revised National Planning Policy Framework to help build more homes, more quickly, in places where people want to live.

But, says the CLA, changes made to the criteria for Entry Level Exception Sites - stating that all properties on these sites should be affordable - will now mean less land being made available for "much-needed homes in the countryside".

The body represents 30,000 landowners, farmers and rural businesses in England and Wales.

Its president, Tim Breitmeyer, said: “While we desperately need affordable homes so people can live and work in the countryside, the reality of the policy means that landowners will not bring land forward because the incentive of including market homes on the site has been removed.

"Without the benefit of cross subsidy, the decision to release land for housing is not financially viable so fewer homes are likely to be built.

“In the last five years, 13 per cent of CLA members have donated or sold land at a discount for affordable housing.

"We made a robust case to the Government for greater incentives to help grow this figure but, by making it less attractive for landowners, the Entry Level Exception Site policy severely limits the chance to solve the rural housing crisis.”