The rural dream sours: 1million 'forgotten' families stuck in poverty

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They live below the official poverty line while the houses around them are snapped up by wealthy second home owners from the cities, Gordon Brown's rural advocate said.

The rural poor "form a forgotten city of disadvantage" in the midst of rural England, he said.

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Thousands of people in rural areas are living beneath the poverty line

A report by Dr Stuart Burgess for the Prime Minister said that in isolated and picturesque districts where second home owners look for a rural paradise, locals face housing shortages and slender chances of getting a good education.

Resentment and tensions are generated by an influx of middle-class weekenders and of immigrants looking for work, he said.

Dr Burgess, who heads the Commission for Rural Communities, said there were 928,000 families and individuals in rural areas on incomes of less than £16,492 a year.

"But because rural disadvantage is scattered it is hidden through the averaging of official statistics and a perception of the countryside as affluent and idyllic," he said.

"I heard about growing numbers of people not qualifying for social housing, but not earning enough to buy a house either."

The report said the lack of homes local people can afford to rent or buy was the single biggest complaint in the countryside.

Locally-born youngsters are heading for the cities in high numbers, the report said.

Dr Burgess, whose organisation was set up by the Government three years ago to provide a voice for the countryside, made a series of recommendations.

They included schemes such as "community land trusts" designed to secure cheap housing for long-standing rural residents and more cash for services such as transport and education.

The Government was also handed a second report which hammered home the same themes.

The Rural Services Network, a grouping of councils and companies, said it was "iniquitous" that those in the countryside pay higher council tax but get inferior services.