The Government's relaxed planning rules have effectively declared "open season" in rural areas with councils unable to turn down applications covering swathes of the countryside, the Green party has claimed.
It has condemned the Coalition's National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which controversially hacked back 1,000 pages of policy to around 50, shifting the emphasis to approving schemes deemed sustainable.
East Devon has become particularly vulnerable, councillors say, with more schemes in some cases for many hundreds of homes passed this week.
Causing particular dismay is a new proposal for 180 homes in the area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) near Honiton, an application for nearly 350 houses at Westclyst, and various others in villages such as Talaton and Feniton.
East Devon Green Party co-ordinator Emily McIvor said the easing of laws were "to blame for the recent spate".
"They seem to see house building, and the economic activity that accompanies it, as the key to re-election," she added.
"They have put in place a national framework which weakens local control and allows inappropriate new housing.
"This is a tragedy for the country, and, in particular, for East Devon, where a more considered approach, including provision of new social housing to meet local need, is sadly lacking."
Such is the concern in the area that campaign group the East Devon Alliance (EDA) staged a protest demonstration in March at what it called environmentally damaging new national planning regulations.
Protesters were angry that three developments totalling 285 houses had been planned for the village of Feniton rather than the 35 allocated in the local plan, taking agreed growth of 5% up to 40%.
Also of concern is the lack of a "five-year land supply" in the district, which has been used by developers as grounds to successfully appeal decisions which are refused.
Last week a development management committee (DMC) meeting, East Devon's planning body, sat from morning until night determining applications.
At the unusually lengthy meeting, Clinton Devon Estates' outline application for 350 homes at Plumb Park in Exmouth was waved through.
However, an outline planning application for a development of offices, industrial units, play space, sports field, two football pitches, and up to 170 new homes at Seaton was refused.
Councillor Helen Parr, new DMC chairman, said: "It's our role to work objectively and make decisions based solidly on planning policy and regulations.
"I think we came to fair, well evidenced decisions on some difficult and finely balanced issues."
