The lack of affordable rural housing is so acute that it will take more than 150 years to clear waiting lists, according to a report by CPRE, the countryside charity. The pandemic has only made the problem worse: incoming city slickers have pushed property prices even higher, shutting out locals who were already competing with second-home buyers to get on the ladder.

Now an Oxfordshire architect has a solution that he claims will solve this shortage, help the planet and even win over the Nimbys. Giles Lovegrove, principal of Trace Architects, has built a prototype for a modular house, a one-bedroom, 484 sq ft structure that would cost only £150,000. Called “Plan B”, his timber prefab dwellings would be assembled on paddocks where half of

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