EXTENDING the right-to-buy to housing association tenants will be disastrous for rural communities, a leading academic has warned.

The government's flagship policy made "no sense," said Mark Shucksmith, director of the Newcastle University Institute for Social Renewal.

"There is already a shortage of affordable housing, especially in rural areas where there is little social housing," said Professor Shucksmith.

Rural house prices were already on average 26% higher than in urban areas – and the ratio of house prices to local earnings was even worse, he added.

Extending the right to buy to housing association tenants was a major pledge included in the Conservative Party manifesto, published in before last month's general election.

Doing so would give more people the chance to own their home by, said the document.

But Prof Shucksmith said: "Disposing of housing association stock, at great cost to the taxpayer, will make the impact on rural communities much more serious.

"We are already seeing those on low and medium incomes, and especially young people, priced out of small towns and villages across the UK.

"With housing association properties sold off, and unlikely to be replaced in any substantial quantities, the wealth divide in rural communities will deepen even further."

Prof Shucksmith has spent more than 30 years researching the effect of housing affordability on social change in rural areas.

His book "No Homes For Locals?" was published in 1981, and he has subsequently been a member of the Affordable Rural Housing Commission.

But Prof Shucksmith said the forced sale of housing association properties would affect the social and demographic make-up of rural communities – and have a knock-on effect for local employers.

The government recognised the social and economic importance of affordable rural housing in its Rural Policy Statement in 2012, he said.

With rural areas becoming increasingly socially exclusive, local businesses would find it even harder to attract the young, skilled, ambitious people they needed.

"We urgently need more affordable homes to be built, not the disposal of the few that remain in rural areas," said Prof Shucksmith.

The government should reconsider the Right to Buy extension, he added.

Instead, it should implement recent recommendations made by the Rural Housing Policy Review group, chaired by Lord Best, to provide more affordable rural housing.

"This would not only provide much-needed housing supply, but would help rural economies contribute more fully to the government's growth agenda."

Professor Shucksmith's recommendations for rural housing policy are outlined in his contribution to the Rural Housing Policy Review report, A Fair Deal for Rural Communities, which was launched in February 2015.