The Chancellor’s spring statement has drawn strong criticism from CPRE, the Countryside Charity, which accused Rachel Reeves of failing to grasp the true nature of the housing crisis and prioritising growth over affordability and sustainability.
Responding to the announcement, CPRE chief executive Roger Mortlock said the government’s focus on driving housing-led growth ignored the core issue — building the right homes in the right places.
“Addressing the housing crisis is about so much more than powering growth,” Mortlock said. “It’s about building the homes people need, where they actually need them. We heard far too little from the Chancellor today about affordable homes, homes for social rent, or the 1.2 million homes that could be built on brownfield sites in England alone.”
The Chancellor’s focus on the so-called “grey belt” — areas of lower-quality Green Belt land — was a particular point of contention for CPRE. Mortlock warned that relying on grey belt development risks creating more car-dependent, identikit estates of unaffordable homes, while simultaneously eroding the Green Belt that Labour once championed.
He added that rural communities, already struggling with rising house prices and lower-than-average incomes, would be hit hardest by the lack of targeted housing measures. “With the OBR forecasting further house price rises, the UK’s housing affordability crisis shows no sign of easing. And it’s rural areas that suffer most — where homes are increasingly out of reach for local people.”
CPRE also criticised the government’s failure to hold major housebuilders accountable for delivering on housing pledges. Mortlock said the current approach gives too much power to developers who are incentivised to control supply and drive up prices rather than meet actual demand.
“The Chancellor appears to have no plan to hold the housebuilding industry to account and ensure it actually delivers the homes the government is promising,” he said. “We know the big housebuilders control supply to maximise profit. They have a role to play, but unchecked, it’s like putting the fox in charge of the hen house.”
With calls growing for a stronger focus on affordable housing and sustainable planning, CPRE’s comments underscore a growing concern among campaigners and communities that the government’s housing strategy is misaligned with the real needs of the population — and could do lasting harm to the countryside without solving the root problems of the housing crisis.
