Rural planning reforms designed to cut red tape are causing 'physical harm' to the countryside, warns senior Tory Nadhim Zahawi warns new rules were causing 'pain' to rural communities Reforms brought in last year slashed 1,000 pages of planning rules to just 50 Mr Zahawi said reforms had led to 'bizarre levels of proposed development' Controversial planning reforms are resulting in 'physical harm' to the countryside, a senior Tory warned last night. Nadhim Zahawi, a member of the Number 10 Policy Board, which advises David Cameron, said countryside blight could end up being 'the defining legacy of this government' unless ministers act to rein in developers. The Government introduced a new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) last year in a bid to cut through the red tape blamed for holding up housing development and economic growth. Nadhim Zahawi with David Cameron at the 2010 Tory conference: The senior Conservative MP has warned that controversial planning reforms designed to slash red tape are resulting in 'physical harm' to the countryside It reduced 1,000 pages of planning guidance to just 50 and introduced a new 'presumption of sustainable development'. But, in an intervention likely to irritate Downing Street, Mr Zahawi said the new regulations were causing 'pain' to communities across the country. He called on the Planning Minister Nick Boles to close loopholes in the new rules which are causing 'intense attacks' on the countryside by 'rapacious developers'. He said the new system was leading to 'bizarre levels of proposed development'. 'The damage this is doing to our flagship policy of localism is immense, and, if it continues, the physical harm it is doing to our countryside will become the defining legacy of this Government,' Mr Zahawi said. Green and pleasant land: Mr Zahawi called on the Planning Minister Nick Boles to close loopholes in the new rules which are causing 'intense attacks' on the countryside by 'rapacious developers' Mr Zahawi, who hit the headlines last year after claiming expenses to heat his stables, warned that the regulations are resulting in developers 'identifying farmland, large gardens and greenfield sites in order to shortcut the planning process'. Former Liberal Democrat environment minister David Heath also attacked the rules, warning that communities trying to resist building in the countryside were 'under siege' and were being 'picked apart by clever QCs' who were now able to have local decisions overridden. But, speaking in the Commons, Mr Boles rejected the calls, saying: 'We are not looking to change the NPPF, because after such a dramatic change in the planning system, stability has an enormous value.'