Britain risks losing its soul if 'growth is put before beauty' A time of economic pressure is precisely the wrong time to throw away the non-material things we value, and damage the source of our enrichment, contentment and connection. A civilised society cares about its past as an integral means of caring for the future. As head of the National Trust, Dame Fiona helped force the government into a re-think on the National Planning Framework to ensure it included more protections for the environment. She is now the Master of Emmanuel College at Cambridge University. She said that Britain's landscape is an inherent part of its national identity and is intertwined with the country's literature and history. These places and our relationship with them make us what we are. People cleave to place and character, all this multitude and diversity is contained within a common boundary - our island of Britain, shaped by its edge as well as its interior. In the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, we woke up to the need to protect our countryside and established National Parks, the National Trust, the planning system and nature protection. But in the late twentieth century we started to lose that focus on beauty and now it is under threat as never before. She said that the "homogenisation" of developments could see places lose their personality, "the wrinkles and quirks that give a place character and meaning, memory and connection." Has the government got the right balance between pushing for growth and protecting the countryside? She said development should focus first on building on brownfield sites and urban regeneration before expanding into the countryside. When new homes are build in rural areas, she said it was important that they were "beautiful." She said: "It doesn't have to be like this. We can design beautiful new housing and roads. We can plan for wonderful villages, towns and cities that embrace the needs of today's multi-cultural Britain without destroying all that went before. This is not an easy message for politicians. It does not provide a simple or easy answer to the debate about the EU, devolution or even localism. She urged people to get involved in the planning process to ensure that the countryside is protected. "I want people to be involved, to play a part," she said. I'm highlighting the opportunity now to use the planning system that we've got and keep it as strong as it can be.