Government proposals to ease affordable housing requirements could result in half of all affordable rural housing being lost, according to the National Housing Federation (NHF).
Proposals under the National Planning Policy Framework seek to remove the existing requirement to deliver affordable housing for sites of between 10 and 49 homes.
Currently, developers are required to deliver a proportion of affordable homes through a mechanism called Section 106.
According to Government figures, Section 106 last year accounted for 51.3% of affordable housing in rural areas.
The proposed changes could prevent these houses being built and could lead to the loss of 32,000 properties over the next decade, according to the NHF.
