The Conservative candidate for Wantage, Robert Jackson, has been accused of making a political U-turn after calling for a reduction in housebuilding in rural Oxfordshire.

Mr Jackson criticised the Government for putting pressure on the county council to find room for new housing. He said Oxfordshire was being forced to accept 14,000 new houses by 2006 - much of it in the Wantage constituency.

Robert JacksonWriting in his constituency newsletter Common Sense, he said: "Oxfordshire should be allowed to decide for itself how many houses should be built, where and of what kind."

But the Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for Wantage, Neil Fawcett, accused the Conservative candidate of double standards.

He claimed he failed to object to large amounts of development in the county which took place while the Tories were in power.

He said: "Robert Jackson can try to wriggle out of this issue all he likes, but the fact is he sat in Parliament for 14 years while thousands of houses were forced on Oxfordshire without saying a single word.

"Throughout that period we were told to allocate housing by his Conservative Government but were not given the money by them to fund the local services to go with them.

"We welcome news that he now opposes centrally dictated housing numbers for Oxfordshire, but it is a shame he did not realise the policy was wrong sooner. He might have been able to persuade the Government to change policy when he was a Government minister."

Mr Jackson said: "I won't say Oxfordshire was ideal 50 years ago, and that we have spoiled it ever since, but you can have too much of a good thing, in terms of house building."