VILLAGES in rural parts of the region will be "fossilised" unless more affordable housing is built, a leading chartered surveyor has warned.

David Coulson also said that the number of second homes and holiday cottages is turning some villages in County Durham and Northumberland into playgrounds for the rich.

He wants Government incentives for landowners to put forward more land to ease the crisis.

Mr Coulson, a partner in Broadley and Coulson of Crook, County Durham, is national chairman of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, (RICS) rural faculty.

He was responding to last week's national State of the Countryside Report, which said the annual influx of thousands of urban dwellers was putting rural communities at risk.

It said houses in villages cost twice as much as those in towns. Many newcomers commute to work while others are retired - pensioners now account for 25 per cent of the rural population.

Mr Coulson said the large proportion of holiday cottages and second homes in local villages had led to the closure of local schools, shops, banks, post offices, churches and pubs.

He said: "These villages are in danger of becoming ghost towns and playgrounds for the rich."

He highlighted the Three Rivers Housing Association in County Durham, which has bought houses for rent in villages and commissioned new homes with rental and shared equity schemes.

However, he said the association needs more funding to continue doing that work.

Mr Coulson said: "Low rural wages and a shortage of houses for key workers and local people mean that it is difficult to build our way out of the problem. If we are not careful, rural villages could be fossilised.

"The general feeling is that social housing, affordable housing and market housing needs to be provided together - not just in isolation."

RICS wants affordable houses on mixed estates - not on the edge of villages - linked to public transport and employment.

* The Campaign to Protect Rural England and the National Housing Federation have also called for government intervention. It said house prices in some areas were now ten times the local wage.