The Countryside Alliance (CA) is between a rock and a hard place when it comes to rural housing. On the one hand it is right to highlight the shortfall in the provision of affordable property in rural areas and warn of the consequences for the countryside if more is not built.

But on the other hand it must be aware that many of its members who are already secure in their own country homes were among the many thousands deeply concerned about the impact on the landscape of the Labour Government's Regional Spatial Strategy, which would have imposed many thousands of extra homes on our rural, rolling acres. That strategy was scrapped by the incoming coalition, to the delight and relief of many Countryside Alliance members.

It is providing the affordable homes required in the right numbers, at the right density and in the right places to maintain the rural landscape while invigorating rural communities, that is proving to be the challenge. CA Chief Executive Alice Barnard says rural housing needs must be "a priority" for Government. Up to a point, Alice, would be many CA members' response, we suspect.