Shropshire’s villages are at risk of dying unless radical action is taken to secure their future, it is being warned.

Rural communities are at risk of turning into retirement villages or theme parks as the young are being priced out of them, activists behind a new Rural Coalition claimed today

They say urban buyers who are relocating or buying second homes push prices up and councils must have more power and cash to make decisions about housing and planning.

The new coalition, made up of leading organisations representing rural interests, is calling on the Government to deliver on its Big Society vision by empowering residents to shape the rural places in which they live.

It is warning that, without this action, rural services face meltdown as spending is cut, housing will out-price all but the wealthiest and rural wages will lag as much as 20 per cent behind urban averages.

Andy Boddington, chairman of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, part of the coalition, said people who work in the countryside need to live there.

He said: “The right to build is an opportunity to bring forward much needed affordable housing schemes.

“Shropshire Council’s core strategy will also bring in affordable housing in villages as part of a rural rebalance to bring life back to those villages.

“South Shropshire is so beautiful that of course people want to retire here and buy holiday homes here but that puts a squeeze on the housing market. If you want the countryside to live, people who work there need to be able to live there.”

Today the coalition published The Rural Challenge, a report outlining detailed proposals to give residents, entrepreneurs, community groups and councils the ability to bring about positive change ensuring a thriving future for the countryside.

Key recommendations include urging the Government to give greater independence to residents and councils to ensure communities can continue to live and work, and scrapping plans for referendums in the Government’s Community Right to Build scheme which would need 90 per cent community support before new, small scale development can go ahead in villages.

By Emma Kasprzak