CPRE (The Countryside Charity)
CPRE (The Countryside Charity)
05 Jun 2026
Exploring the potential for prospering rural areas with English Devolution
A new report commissioned by CPRE and produced by Grounded Insight explores the potential of English devolution to address the imbalance in policymaking and investment in its rural areas.
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27 Apr 2026
Rural Impact In Focus As Clean Energy Accelerates
The Government has set out an accelerated vision for the UK’s clean energy transition, alongside renewed parliamentary scrutiny of what this shift could mean for rural communities.
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08 Dec 2025
Traditional Signpost Restoration Course Opens For 2026
CPRE Northumberland is running a one-off Traditional Signpost Restoration training course in 2026, led by David Gosling of Signpost Restoration Ltd. The course will take place over three…
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28 Jul 2025
Giving Every Child The Best Start In Life
The Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South), recently delivered a statement to Parliament outlining the Government’s new Best Start in Life strategy. The…
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28 Jul 2025
Getting Solar Off The Ground
A new report published by CPRE, titled Getting Solar Off the Ground, reveals that a significant proportion of England’s most productive farmland is now being used for large-scale…
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24 Jul 2025
Get expert planning support for your town or parish council – join CPRE as a member today
At CPRE, the countryside charity, we stand for a countryside that enriches all our lives, regenerating our wellbeing, and that we in turn regenerate, protect and celebrate. We…
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25 Nov 2024
Building the Path to Net Zero: CPRE’s Vision for a Reformed Planning System
The countryside charity CPRE, in collaboration with the Aldersgate Group and RenewableUK, has released a new report detailing urgent recommendations for reforming the UK’s planning system. As we…
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21 Oct 2024
Rural Services Network Collaborates on Urgent Housing Reform
In a significant collaborative effort, the Rural Services Network, alongside several key organisations, has sent a joint letter to Matthew Pennycook MP, the Minister of State for Housing,…
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21 Oct 2024
Navigating Rural Challenges: Insights from Monday’s Planning Seminar
Yesterday the RSN hosted a Rural Planning Seminar. With over 70 members from across the RSN and Rural Services Partnership (RSP) membership attending, the event emphasised the collective…
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29 Jul 2024
A Joined-Up Planning System for Net Zero Success
The UK’s commitment to achieving net-zero emissions necessitates an improved onshore planning system for renewable energy and grid infrastructure. A recent interim report, “Insights for the Decarbonised Electricity…
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15 Apr 2024
Localis Issues Essay Collection on Building Consent for Housing Renewal
Last week, independent think-tank Localis published a collection of essays from leading planning experts and local council leaders setting out ideas for how popular approval for new housing…
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15 Apr 2024
Rural England Leads in Solar Energy, yet Potential Remains Vastly Untapped
Groundbreaking analysis from the Countryside Charity, CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England), published last week, reveals that rural homes in England are leading the way in harnessing solar…
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04 Dec 2023
Rural Affordable Housing under the spotlight
On Tuesday night, the CPRE (The Campaign for the Protection of rural England) launched their latest report into rural affordable housing at a Parliamentary reception. Attended by key…
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03 Jul 2023
RSN backs calls for better affordable housing in rural areas as part of Rural Housing Week 2023
This week the National Housing Federation (NFH) is running its annual campaign which highlights the challenges facing rural areas when it comes to housing. There have been some…
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13 Feb 2023
Potential ‘transport deserts’ if bus services cut in rural Cumbria
The News and Star reports that the Confederation of Passenger Transport has warned that as many as 15 per cent of bus services could be cut across the…
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23 Jan 2023
Somerset solar farm designed to power 10,000 homes approved
The BBC reports that a solar farm designed to power up to 10,000 Somerset homes is to be built near protected countryside in Dorset Elgin Energy has got…
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16 Jan 2023
Rural villages ‘under assault’ by greenfield property development
The Express reports that analysis by the Campaign to Protect Rural England suggests there are currently more than 400,000 homes with planning permission on greenfield sites Even if…
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12 Dec 2022
Farmers urge UK government to fund hedge creation to bolster biodiversity
The Guardian reports that farmers are urging the government to include hedge creation in its nature-friendly farming subsidy scheme in an attempt to increase biodiversity Details about the…
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24 Oct 2022
How Airbnb-next-the-Sea is taking over the Norfolk coast
The Eastern Daily Press reports how new figures reveal the rapid expansion of ‘Airbnb-next-the-Sea’, as growing numbers of landlords on the Norfolk coast turn to the online portal to rent out their…
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03 Oct 2022
Sleeping in barns – homeless in the countryside
The BBC have reported on the interim findings of research into Rural Homelessness, commissioned by a rural taskforce. The research is being carried out by University of Kent…
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19 Apr 2022
Fears raised about Cumbria’s ‘creaking’ infrastructure amid housing boom
The News and Star reports that the Campaign to Protect Rural England has warned new planning reforms, designed to support a 340,000 new homes per year target, could…
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28 Feb 2022
Soaring rural rent prices force locals into living in a Airbnb
The BBC reports how a Cornish resident has been forced into living in an Airbnb due to soaring private rent prices As a Cornish painter and decorator, Heath…
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14 Feb 2022
Huge rise in £1 million homes across the UK
The Times reports that one in 42 homes in Britain is worth £1 million or more, with about 80 per cent of new “property millionaires” created in the…
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24 Jan 2022
Rural communities ‘strangled’ by holiday let surge
Devon Live reports that a surge in homes marketed for short term holiday lets is strangling rural communities Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), believes that an explosion…
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17 Jan 2022
Holiday lets ‘are strangling rural communities’ in Cornwall
Farmers Weekly and Cornwall Live report on new data revealing how rural families are being deprived of housing by a 1,000% surge in the number of short-term lets…
Read more20 Dec 2021
CPRE – Housing Crisis
The CPRE, (the Countryside Charity), have recently published… You often hear people talk about a housing crisis, and addressing it is something that we at CPRE are passionate…
Read more22 Nov 2021
CPRE launch Recycling our Land Brownfields report
The CPRE last week held an event launching their latest report Recycling our land – State of Brownfield 2021 The event was chaired by Emma Bridgewater, CPRE President…
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15 Nov 2021
Regeneration of brownfield sites is creating much-needed housing
The Metro reports that according to the Campaign for Rural England (CPRE), nearly 21,000 brownfield sites of different sizes are registered on local authority databases in England, with…
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18 Oct 2021
Rural crisis as young people consider moving as they can’t afford to live in villages
The Daily Express reports that a YouGov poll by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) revealed that only two in five 16 to 25-year-olds who are living…
Read more17 May 2021
Johnson’s planning laws an ‘utter disaster’, say countryside campaigners
The BBC and the Guardian have reported that the Government has confirmed that MPs will vote on a controversial overhaul of England’s planning system within the next year…
Read more26 Apr 2021
Warning over picturesque countryside at risk of being spoilt by housing developments
There has been a 129 per cent increase in developments planned on greenfield land, putting them at risk of ‘rapid and reckless’ projects, according to new data from…
Read more01 Feb 2021
CPRE, the countryside charity has today launched a campaign for a reliable bus service for every community
CPRE are calling on the government to make sure that, as we recover from the pandemic, our towns and villages have the bus services that local people need…
Read more14 Dec 2020
Tory councillors join call for Government planning rethink
Housing Today has reported that countryside campaigners have joined with more than 2,000 local councillors to sign a letter to Housing Minister Robert Jenrick MP (Con) opposing the…
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02 Nov 2020
Rural homelessness in England rises by 115% in past two years
The Rural Services Network, along with CPRE and English Rural Housing commissioned research into the Economic and Fiscal case for investing in rural affordable housing to drive post-pandemic…
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28 Oct 2020
Rural homelessness doubles since 2018 according to rural campaigners
‘Investing in affordable rural housing will level up and turbo charge the rural economy’ according to new research from CPRE, the countryside charity, English Rural and the Rural…
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28 Sep 2020
Call for Government to level-up rural areas to support England’s economic recovery from COVID-19
Call for Government to level-up rural areas to support England’s economic recovery from COVID-19 Rural Coalition urges Government to unlock untapped potential of rural communities and economies and…
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06 Jul 2020
Homes for Heroes: huge lack of affordable homes for rural key workers
New analysis finds over nine in ten rural areas are unaffordable for care workers in the private rented sector as rural housing week 2020 begins CPRE, the countryside…
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22 Jun 2020
CPRE Events on the Climate Emergency and Pandemic
The CPRE have announced two events which will focus on their manifesto post coronavirus as well as possible countryside solutions to the climate change emergency. Details of these…
Read more21 May 2020
An update from CPRE, the countryside charity’s Rural Economy and Communities team:
At CPRE’s Rural Economy and Communities team we want to see thriving and sustainable rural communities across the country. That means towns and villages properly connected by public…
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17 Feb 2020
Transport Deserts – why reconnecting rural England matters
The CPRE, the countryside charity have launched a new report Transport deserts, highlighting the lack of public transport across rural towns in the North East and South West…
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06 Jan 2020
CPRE Report: Reviving county farms
The CPRE have published a report titled ‘Reviving county farms‘. This report, prepared for CPRE by the New Economics Foundation, Shared Assets and Who Owns England?, shows that…
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03 Jun 2019
Potential £1 billion boost for local charities with new recycling scheme
Local charities could receive £1 billion from the proceeds of a can and bottle deposit return scheme, according to research by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE)…
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28 Jan 2019
133 year wait for rural social housing
The Yorkshire Post reported on new analysis of government figures by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) that suggest a 133-year wait for social housing. The report…
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