The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has said councils are failing to apply planning guidance that is designed to protect the British countryside.
Councils are expected by Government to establish and have a plan to meet an 'Objectively Assessed Need' (OAN) for housing in their area, which takes into account issues such as projected population growth and future employment opportunities.
Yet planning rules also state that this number should take into account constraints such as protected countryside.
CPRE research shows that, since 2012, 24 councils out of the 62 local authorities have heeded national policy and established housing targets in approved local plans lower than their OAN, with the majority reducing their targets due to environmental or countryside constraints.
These include Chichester, Lewes and Wealden. Chichester reduced its target by 23% and Lewes by 30%. Other local authorities, such as Brighton, Watford, Hastings and Crawley, have reduced their targets by 50% or more.
'Unnecessary loss of countryside'
Other councils, however, have pursued the full OAN despite a high proportion of their land being protected countryside.
In Christchurch and East Dorset, where the local plan meets the objectively assessed need for 8,490 houses over 15 years in full, 84% of the area of the plan is covered by Green Belt, Areas of Natural Beauty (AONB) and nature conservation land.
CPRE's planning campaign manager Paul Miner comments: "We need to build more genuinely affordable homes. But current rules promote urban sprawl and cause the unnecessary loss of countryside. A more transparent and less damaging method of planning for housing is urgently needed."
"Government ministers recently pledged to create a new method for councils to calculate their Objectively Assessed Need. The proposals were expected in early summer, but the General Election is believed to have delayed their release. CPRE is calling for a method that better reflects local need, protected countryside and current building rates."
