North Herefordshire MP Sir Bill Wiggin has attacked a prominent local councillor over her stance on enabling affordable rural housing by buying up farmland.

He said he was “astonished” at comments by Independents for Herefordshire leader Cllr Liz Harvey’s remarks during a recent Labour Party-organised meeting in Ledbury (pictured right), in which she suggested the council should intervene to buy up land for rural homes.

“People will rightly be asking questions about what these comments mean for our future food security if farmers are forced to sell their land,” Sir Bill said.

Tipped to win a general election next year, Labour recently committed to a policy of enabling councils in England to buy land for housebuilding cheaply using compulsory purchase orders, in an effort to address the national housing shortage.

“If Cllr Harvey does not wish to protect our green spaces, then residents might wonder how much more compulsory development we can expect in Ledbury and further afield,” added Sir Bill, who lives in his constituency in Upton Bishop near Ross.

North Herefordshire also includes includes Foy, King’s Caple and Much Marcle.

But Coun Harvey, who has no connection to Labour, said such a policy could benefit rural areas in particular.

“Under current government policy there is no obligation to provide an affordable housing element on developments of under 15 homes,” she explained.

“But our villages struggle to find that kind of space, which would unbalance them, so those kind of sites don’t get allocated.”

Meanwhile housing developers “want to avoid the affordable requirement as it depresses the value of their market properties”, she said.

The previous Herefordshire Council administration, in which Cllr Harvey was cabinet member for planning, attempted to lower the bar on this obligation to five properties, with developers then funding affordable developments elsewhere.

But this approach depends on suitable land being available, and landowners “may rather hold out for market housing”, Coun Harvey said.

The Conservative administration which took over in May has since delayed revising the county’s key planning document, the core strategy.

Instead, that will not now be consulted on until spring, she added.

“This should be an opportunity for people to say where and how development should come forward, and raise the profile of the issue which people feel there is no solution to,” added the councillor.