AGRICULTURAL land totalling the size of a major city has been converted into housing in just under 20 years, the Yorkshire Post can reveal.
Since 1989 a total of nine square miles of farmland, equivalent to more than 5,818 acres, has been developed into residential use.
And, although the rate of development on agricultural and green belt land has slowed in the past few years, there ar
e fears that Government plans to build three million homes over the next 12 years will mean more rural land lost to housing.
The amount of housing being built on agricultural land has reduced in recent years due to new Government policies requiring that local authorities prioritise development on brownfield land as opposed to green belt.
However countryside campaigners said that more should be done to protect rural areas from being developed.
Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) policy officer for Yorkshire and the Humber Gillian Stride said: "As far as CPRE is concerned development on agricultural land should only take place on poor quality land and should just be for developments that are sympathetic to the local character and environment. Rural communities which want to thrive and become proper sustainable communities cannot do that by selling of land to people for second homes – for people who want to live in the sticks but to work in Leeds or somewhere like that.
"If they are only living there on the weekend then their children will not go to local schools and support local businesses and post offices."
However, Yorkshire president of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) Dorothy Fairburn said that rural development was acceptable given the correct circumstances.
"We should always bear in mind the importance of our ability to grow our own food and development should not be done on good agricultural land.
"One of the difficulties is that it is good agricultural land often tends to be the areas that everyone wants to build on because often it is flat. I think there needs to be an element of flexibility about it. I think the major issue is whether we should use green belt land more or not."
Rural property expert Ian Cartwright of property consultancy firm Carter Jonas said Britain's housing need may result in more green belt land being lost to development.
"Twenty years ago by and large development in rural areas was on poor quality agricultural land. Local authorities were under no pressure from central government to stop it," he said.
"Around the turn of the century guidelines were changed stating that two thirds of land being used for development had to be brownfield land.
"This meant that places like Harrogate, which does not have much brownfield land, effectively embargoed residential development.
"There will need to be a reassessment of housing need.
"There will need to be quantifying of immigration and demographics, we are seeing more single parent families and people are living longer.
"All of these things show that we do need Gordon's three million new homes.
"There has been a downturn but people will need somewhere to live regardless of the market."
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