A Landowners’ leader has raised the spectre of more red tape strangling rural businesses.

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) was reacting to proposals in the Government’s Localism Bill which would give rural residents the right to delay property sales in order to make their own bids.

CLA president and Yorkshire landowner William Worsley from Hovingham, near Malton, said: “These proposals will not work in practice and will discourage landowners from providing land and buildings to be used by their local communities.

“Ministers have frequently mentioned the plight of rural pubs and post offices, but this is not addressed by the Bill or the consultation document.

“Proposals to make these countryside businesses more economically viable by reducing red tape and the tax burden, as the Government has often promised to do, would have been very welcome.”

He said the Government had decided to take the opposite approach, and was proposing more regulations to give local authorities the power to ban owners from selling or giving away their land or buildings until the local community had been given a chance to raise funds to bid for them, which could take up to a year. Mr Worsley said: “As a result the owner will lose the chance to sell or transfer his property at a time of his or her own choosing, which will make it much harder to plan ahead or take advantage of unexpected opportunities. It is very bad news for rural businesses.

“For generations, landowners in rural areas have provided privately owned assets for the good of the local community, but this Bill’s proposals threaten this long-standing tradition. There is hardly a village in the country that has not benefited from the landowner providing a playing field or village hall.”