That the need for affordable housing in rural areas is recognised is not in doubt, but policy instruments for achieving an accelerated supply of new homes have been overshadowed by a broader and pervasive philosophy of ‘protecting the countryside’ in response to a long-standing ‘resource’ perspective of rural areas, given new impetus by claims that protection delivers sustainability, and accentuated by post-war counter-urbanisation. Migration into rural areas has placed huge pressure on the rural housing stock, but it has also transformed perceptions of what rural areas are for, and for whom. Consumption interests have come to dominate many areas, resisting significant development and limiting responses to housing stress to those that might be classed as ‘tactical interventions’. Whilst the development of solutions to meet housing needs in rural areas are characterised by remarkable innovation and initiative, these are not matched by the types of changes to mainstream policies that would allow such innovation to flourish. In the last few years, there have been signals from government in England that a more fundamental shift might be on the horizon, perhaps even a widespread relaxation of planning restriction in response to the 2008 Taylor Review. Certainly, there appears to be greater urgency in the drive to deliver affordable housing, and rural areas have shared at least some of this urgency. In Scotland, debates in the Scottish Parliament have reflected upon the findings of its Rural Affairs and Environment Committee Report (Scottish Parliament Rural Affairs and Environment Committee Report, 2009): that there needs to be a step change in planning cultures to address the shortfall in housing supply. But in both of these countries (and in Wales) there are grave doubts as to whether anything will really change. Planning authorities have long been the guardians of the status quo, prioritising the interests of a well-housed majority, and seldom risking the wrath of NIMBY interests. If national policies are to influence local outcomes, they must engage more proactively with local and community groups. A culture change may well be incubated in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff, but it is in rural areas where it needs to take root.