The news comes after the CLA reported that the supply of new affordable homes across the countryside had remained static as local authorities ignored the potential of rural exception site.

Rural exception sites are small patches of agricultural land outside a village boundary that would not otherwise get planning permission for housing.

The CLA has found just 1,020 affordable properties had been built in England on these sites over the past year, resulting in a three-year low in terms of building rates.

Ross Murray, president of the CLA, said these figures showed that a core planning principle in the National Planning Policy Framework to support rural communities was not being achieved.

“Rural exception sites are designed to provide much-needed affordable homes for the local community in perpetuity and should be used to their maximum potential.

“A three-year low in building rates is bad news for rural communities struggling with the cost of housing, but unsurprising when coupled with the uncertainty caused by the Housing and Planning Act and the government’s extension of the Right to Buy to housing association tenants.”

The CLA not only want the government to introduce permitted development rights for the construction of affordable housing for rent, it would also like to make building these homes on rural exception sites more attractive to landowners.

The CLA has also published a series of ideas to help improve housebuilding in rural communities.

“Landowners have strong multi-generational ties to their communities and are often local employers,” Ross added.

“They wish to sustain that community for future generations, and long-term investment in affordable housing is an excellent way of doing this.

“However, there is not enough proactive engagement by local councils with landowners or incentives to bring sites forward.”