The south west of Scotland has one of the worst shortages of rented accommodation in the country, according to a charity.

The housing charity Shelter Scotland said the problem has been most severe in outlying villages which are suffering population decline and the loss of services such as local schools.

The claim was made at a conference in Castle Douglas on rural housing.

Parliament passed new housing measures

Shelter Scotland used the event to call for changes to Scottish housing policies, which it said, discriminate against remote communities.

The charity said the current approach to providing affordable housing for rent has caused problems.

Rural housing officer Karen Lewis gave the example of a village in Kirkcudbrightshire where right-to-buy legislation has caused a housing imbalance.

There were only four three-bedroom homes still available for rent in the village, compared with 17 one-bedroom houses.

The result was a lack of opportunity for new families to settle in the area.

Reverse trend

The charity said the current funding and planning policies make it easier to build new houses in the larger towns at the expense of the outlying countryside.

It also argued that work needs to be done to reverse the trend.

Ms Lewis said: "I think people need to look carefully at this and 'rural-proof', if you like, their strategies and policies so that rural issues are taken into account when planning for housing."

She also called for additional funding to tackle the problem.

Last year the Scottish Parliament passed the country's first housing bill in 13 years.

The Scottish Executive said the bill would radically improve the lives of homeless people across Scotland.

But critics argued that it did not go far enough in tackling homelessness - and warned that extending the right-to-buy scheme for council housing tenants would drastically reduce the future supply of public housing for rent.