House building to grow in countryside, says CPRE

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has acknowledged that some building of new homes over the next 20 years will take place in rural areas.

At the launch of a new online forum about development in such areas, the body predicted that three-quarters of new homes would be constructed on urban brownfield sites, meaning the remainder would have to be greenfield building.

Such building may include situations where people are able to self build their own homes in the countryside as part of wider schemes to sustainably develop rural districts.

CPRE chief executive Shaun Spiers commented: "While we continue to defend countryside from inappropriate development we also want to come up with positive solutions."

Building on greenbeltland has been accepted in many quarters as necessary to enable housing needs to be met.

Speaking about Edinburgh's needs earlier this month, John Brown, director of the Scottish arm of developer DTZ Residential, told the Scotsman there was "no way the city can expand and improve without greenbeltland".


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