GREEN fields are being lost to housing in the North-East and North Yorkshire because local councils are flouting rules by building homes too far apart.

Seventeen of the 21 authorities with responsibility for housing are encouraging "urban sprawl" by failing to hit a Government density target of at least 30 homes per hectare.

Four North Yorkshire councils - Ryedale (13), Richmondshire (17), Selby (18) and Hambleton (19) - fall below 20 homes per hectare.

Sedgefield (20), Wear Valley (20), Harrogate (21), Redcar and Cleveland (22), Chester-le-Street (22), Easington (22), Teesdale (22) and Hartlepool (23) are little better.

Only Darlington (31), Durham (32), Middlesbrough (33) and York (33) exceeded the 30 homes per hectare target, according to the Government figures.

Rydedale and Richmondshire were among ten authorities whose record got worse compared to the previous four-year period, covering 1995 to 1998.

The guidelines suggest up to 50 homes per hectare, which ministers insist is the density of terraced homes with gardens common throughout England.

However, outside four designated growth areas in the SouthEast, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is powerless to intervene.

The figures show the rules are being ignored more in the North, where concerns about the unnecessary loss of the countryside are lower than in the South.

Julie Stainton, of the Campaign to Protect England (CPRE), said: "These councils appear to be ignoring government planning policy and targets which call for an end to wastefully low densities.

According to the CPRE, 72 per cent of councils achieved less than 30 homes per hectare and 25 per cent - a total of 88 - managed 20 homes or less.

The highest achiever was Oxford, with 61 homes per hectare, while five authorities - including Ryedale - all managed just 13 homes.