A PLANNING stranglehold on redundant farmland and buildings in Yorkshire's villages is preventing the building of much-needed affordable homes.

That is the claim of Dorothy Fairburn, Yorkshire regional director of the Country Land & Business Association (CLA), who said: "Most new homes are being built on brownfield sites in towns and cities: why is it okay to re-use a former factory site for affordable housing, but not a derelict piggery?"

While welcoming the latest Government statistics showing efficient use of brownfield sites, she warned that the lack of affordable homes in villages was now threatening to destroy any revival in the rural economy.

"Small, sympathetic schemes allowing villages to grow naturally are often the only way to house existing residents' children and the essential workers that are badly needed by rural businesses.

"If brownfield sites are being used to reinvigorate our town and city centres as Planning and Housing Minister Keith Hill says, why can't planning policies allow redundant farmland and buildings in villages to be recycled too?" she asked.

In a recent report, the CLA voiced concern that the Government intends to abolish the policy known as "exception sites".

This allowed developers to build affordable housing where they would not otherwise be allowed to build on lower-value agricultural land and that makes the development economically viable. "It is currently the only way to deliver affordable rural housing in the right place on the right scale," said Miss Fairburn.

Updated: 10:23 Friday, October 29, 2004