Thousands of new homes planned for countryside

Thousands of low-cost homes are being planned for the English countryside, in what would be the biggest rural housebuilding programme in a generation.

The proposals, which have surfaced in a review of affordable housing ordered by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, would help the PM in his search for suitable sites to build an extra three million homes by 2020.

A key suggestion of the review, which is being undertaken by Liberal Democrat MP Matthew Taylor, is to give powers to England's 8,000 parish councils so they can identify sites for affordable housing where demand is "exceptional". The homes built under the process would have to be sold to local workers and at prices set by affordability criteria.

An earlier reivew of rural housing, commissioned by Brown two years ago, said that 11,000 new homes needed to be built every year in small villages to keep up with demand.