Each year, 30,000 gardens are concreted over to satisfy the need for new homes in the UK and politicians are encouraging the process under the guise of protecting the countryside, according to concerned campaigners.

“Apparently, an area equivalent in size to 2,700 football pitches will go under concrete as our passion for saving and investment in property shows no signs of abating,” said countryside campaigner John Cornwall.

“We are asking MPs to back a Private Member’s Bill to reclassify gardens as greenfield land. We estimate that 30,000 of the 150,000 new homes bought each year are being constructed on gardens.”

Greg Clark, the Conservative MP who is heading the campaign with Labour backbencher Chris Mullin said: “Local authorities appear helpless to stop the land-grab that John Prescott encouraged when he was environment secretary.”

Cornell said: “When you hear about the UK investment the Government is supposedly making in building on brownfield sites you might imagine that it is talking about inner London or some of the blighted northern cities.

“However, much of the saving and investment resources are going into destroying gardens, which contain much rare wildlife and are areas of natural beauty in their own right. This has to be stopped.”