Gordon Brown is preparing to sweep planning controls in villages and market towns aside to allow the biggest rural house building programme for a generation. The government has concluded that protecting the environment should no longer be the overriding consideration when decisions are made in areas where locals are struggling to afford homes. Local authorities will be advised to earmark new building sites in towns where affordable housing is needed; use powers to overrule normal planning curbs in protected areas; provide incentives for farmers to sell land to developers; and create a generation of new communities on the outskirts of market towns.