A NATIONAL park authority has voted to lobby the government over changes to policy on social and affordable housing over fears for the future of rural communities.

After a proposal by North Yorkshire County Council and Richmondshire District Council veteran John Blackie, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, of which he is also a member, voted to work with other national parks to make the government aware of the threat the legislation might bring.

The authority hopes the government will exempt rural communities with less than 2,000 residents from the proposed changes to housing policy.

Cllr Blackie has been campaigning to keep young families in deeply rural communities in the Yorkshire Dales and held a crisis summit with relevant organisations last November.

Richmondshire District Council has also set up its own social landlord trading company, Mercury House Company, as part of the ideas stemming from the rural summit.

But Cllr Blackie fears new policies, including raising the threshold of affordable homes that housing developers have to provide; for local authorities to sell most valuable council homes when they become vacant; and allowing housing association tenants the right to buy, will exacerbate the problem.

He said: “These policies will threaten the very future of rural communities in Richmondshire, including all those in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

“The continued viability of these communities and whether they remain vibrant is in peril of being removed altogether by the momentous impact of three government-led initiatives.”

Cllr Blackie said new policy means there is no need for developers to make an affordable housing provision, although the district council is currently maintaining its own planning policy to ensure developers provide a proportion of either affordable houses or make a contribution to a fund to build them elsewhere.

He said: “The issue is that in deeply rural areas there are very few sites available that can accommodate five new houses, as most are plots for just one, two or three houses.

“In the past these would have yielded an affordable house or two but there is now no longer a requirement to make this provision."

Peter Charlesworth, Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority chairman, said: “The concerns raised by Cllr Blackie were shared by authority members.

“I intend to discuss these important issues with other national park authorities and National Parks England with a view to jointly lobbying the government to avoid a ‘one size fits all’ solution across the country to the detriment of our communities.”