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Summary: Thousands of new, affordable homes are to be built in our rural communities. This article outlines the proposals made by Matthew Taylor MP . Our countryside will become the home for just the wealthy unless something is done.

New Homes in Rural Communities Planned

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As part of the proposals all new developments in these rural communities should include at least two facilities. These could be a shop, pub, cafe, playground or village hall.

One of the most controversial recommendations of the review carried out by Matthew Taylor , MP for Truro and St Austell , and commissioned by Gordon Brown is the call for a limit on second homes.

The proposal was to make wealthy buyers obtain planning permission before they could purchase a holiday home in popular beauty spots. This is because local born people are been pushed out of the market. This proposal has been axed, for fears of the impact on the struggling property market.

Alternatively, thousands of reasonably-priced new homes in the country will be built, so that those on middle-incomes can live and work in rural communities.

Town and parish councils will be required to appoint "master planners" to ensure that new countryside settlements are picturesque and user-friendly.

Planners will work to a "hub and spoke" pattern, with new communities built on roads leading out from the town, each with their own independent shop, pub, restaurant or village hall.

Residents of the new neighbourhoods will be able to shop and socialise near to their home cutting down car use and easing congestion.

Matthew Taylor 's report said: "Without a clear strategy we risk repeating the mistakes of the recent past that have too often produced doughnut development - characterised by bland or ugly housing and unsustainable retail estates ringing the traditional towns.

Demand for homes in rural areas is increasing as half of all urban dwellers say that they plan to move to the country at some stage In the last decade, 800,000 people have moved to the countryside, pushing property prices up to well above those in urban areas, even though wages of rural dwellers are less.

Unless action was taken, Mr Taylor warned that middle class residents would be forced to leave the countryside.

The review said: "If villages become in essence 'gated communities' of the wealthy and retired, the people who do the work in the countryside - on the farms, in the shops, in local businesses, providing the practical services and employment needed in the rural communities - will be priced out.

"With fewer families in the village, services like schools, buses and Post Offices become even less viable - and if lost altogether, make communities even less sustainable."

The review suggests that in a bid to increase affordable homes in villages, planning regulations blocking new properties should be set aside for small developments exclusively dedicated to buyers with local links.

But ministers are determined to stick to the target of three million new properties by 2020. A Government source said: "It's very hard out there for the building trade, and the property market is sadly stagnant. But the recession will come to an end one day, and there is plenty of time for the three million target to be achieved - 2020 is quite far off after all.