Homebuyers hoping to pick up an affordable home in Croydon have suffered a blow after the Government announced an end to ‘garden grabbing’ developments.

About 2,000 new homes have been built on back gardens in the borough since 2003, with previous legislation putting the sites in the same planning category as derelict factories and disused railway sidings.

The new rules will allow Croydon Council to reject back yard applications opposed by local people which are deemed to ruin the character of the area.

Developers have previously been able to overturn failed applications on the ‘brownfield’ sites through appeals to the Government’s planning inspectorate.

Councillor Dudley Mead, cabinet member for housing, said the move would make it more difficult for the council to achieve its target of 19,000 new homes by 2031.

He said: “It’s going to affect it, there’s no two ways about it.

“To date with (the council’s house building programme) I haven’t touched any back garden sites, they have been all genuinely ‘brown’ land.

“But I’m picking the low fruit off the tree and it will get progressively more difficult.

“I totally agree with the Government policy - there’s been far too much back yard development - but I do recognise it’s difficult.

“It’s a trade-off.”

Croydon Council's Labour opposition leader, Tony Newman, warned the plans could leave people in their 20s struggling to get on to the housing ladder in the borough.

He said: "No one wants to see one or two houses crammed in to a space that is obviously a garden.

"But across Croydon there have been large green sites that have fallen into disuse, which have been used to provide high-quality housing, some of it affordable.

"This policy could have a potentially very big impact on people in Croydon."

Croydon South MP Richard Ottaway, whose anti-garden grabbing stance has been a feature of his last two election campaigns, welcomed the announcement.

He said: “It’s really important to us in South Croydon because the southern part of the borough used to be in Surrey.

“When we were brought in to London it made use a fat target for people like Ken Livingstone and Labour councils.

“This forces developers to look at other ‘brownfield’ sites before they build on back gardens.

“You see all sorts of plots of land and think ‘can’t we do something with that?’.

“The developers will have to start looking at some of the more difficult sites, which is right.”