RURAL campaigners claim Oxfordshire countryside is under threat from proposals to shake up planning laws.

Oxfordshire members of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) say the proposed changes will allow people to build “almost anywhere.”

A phrase in the Government’s new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) tells planners to “make a presumption in favour of sustainable development” when considering applications – in a drive to kickstart the house-building business.

Campaigners say that, without definition, this presumption puts swathes of county countryside under threat.

Planning Minister Greg Clark says the number of new homes built nationally has fallen to the lowest peacetime level since 1924.

Latest figures from the House Builders Federation (HBF) show successful applications to build new homes are at a record low.

In the South East region, including Oxfordshire, 3,576 planning applications (excluding London) were approved in the quarter ending June 30 2011, down from 4,735 in the previous quarter.

In the fourth quarter of 2006, successful applications reached a peak of 11,286 in the region, but have been declining ever since.

Bruce Tremayne, vice-chairman of the Oxfordshire CPRE branch, said: “It is the open countryside for which Oxfordshire is so famous that is under threat.

“And it should be remembered this land is not only beautiful but also an economic asset.”

He added: “We are in favour of good high-density development in the right place, but we fear that the use of the word sustainable is a mere figleaf.

“Without further definition it means nothing. If you could get a group of friends together you could build almost anywhere.”

Group chairman Brian Wood added: “It is the places ‘in between’ that are so important and most are not protected by being areas of outstanding natural beauty, national parks, or Green Belts.

“Oxford and Abingdon are two distinct places but if these proposals went ahead there could be an ill-defined sprawl in the countryside between them.”

David Orr of the National Housing Federation (NHF), representing social housing providers, described the initiative as “possibly the most useful thing the coalition government has done.”

And HBF executive chairman Stewart Baseley said: “The figures clearly reveal that while the debate about planning is currently hijacked by irresponsible scaremongering from anti-growth groups, our housing crisis is set to worsen.”

Mr Wood argued that the planning system is not holding back economic growth, adding: “The market is sluggish because of lack of confidence.”