The Campaign to Protect Rural England

OUR ORIGINS

CPRE was founded in 1926 as The Council for the Preservation of Rural England. It was the brainchild of two leading architects and town planners, Patrick Abercrombie and Guy Dawber.

At that time there was no real planning regime for rural areas, only for towns and cities. Abercrombie and Dawber realised that the rapid increase in motor transport, with major roadbuilding, ribbon development and urban sprawl, garages and filling stations, roadside advertising and many new roadside facilities for the newly mobile population posed a major threat to the unprotected countryside.

1926

THE BIRTH OF CPRE

In 1926, conscious that ‘Soon this green and pleasant land will only be glimpsed through an almost continuous hedge of bungalows and houses!’, Abercrombie wrote a manifesto – The Preservation of Rural England: The control of development by means of Rural Planning’. Dawber enlisted all the major organisations with an interest in the future of the countryside and on 7 December 1926, the CPRE was born.

1926

1927

A CENTURY OF INNOVATION

From 1927 onwards, the CPRE was responsible for generating, and working with successive governments to implement, all of the planning laws, regulatory regimes and environmental protection mechanisms that we now take for granted – from Green Belts to National Parks, from Listed Buildings to the Planning Acts of 1932 and 1947, which provided planning laws for the whole country, ending the development ‘free-for-all’ and providing the platform for all the democratic development control we have today

CPRE’s Achievements & History

1927

Today

CPRE Today

Today, CPRE reflects the voices of 200,000 people and 40 branches nationwide who are committed to protecting the countryside – the only organisation specifically dedicated to doing so. Our voice is heard in government, on every key rural issue. The mandating of solar panels on all new-build housing in the 2025 Future Homes Standard is an example of that voice achieving real results.

Today

LEARN MORE ABOUT CPRE’S NATIONAL WORK

CPRE is a national network of charities working together to improve national policy and local decisions which affect the countryside and rural communities. Our members, supporters and county branches underpin a highly respected and influential organisation that’s listened to by governments as the unique centre of expertise on rural planning.