Archived press release

First 'urgent' conference plans radical action on greenfield housing

9 July 1999

Greenfield protestors and housing campaigners from all parts of the country are gathering in Oxford today to assess whether the Government's new planning policies will save the countryside and regenerate inner cities [1].

The first gathering of the Urban Regeneration and Greenfield Environment Network(URGENT) [2] will plan radical action to protect greenfield sites and to get empty properties back into use. It will:

. discuss whether the recent report of Lord (Richard) Roger's Urban Task Force will genuinely benefit urban communities or provide yet another bonanza for private developers;
. seek ways of overcoming fears about town cramming and loss of urban wildlife habitat to new housing;
. investigate new forms of living such as low-impact rural settlements, co-housing and co-operatives and earth shelter and straw-bale housing.

Xanthe Bevis of the URGENT network said:

“We need policies that meet housing need without destroying the environment.Existing policies not only mean that houses get built in the wrong places, they also mean that the wrong houses get built in the first place. The Government's obsession with private developer-led solutions means it has failed to consider the contribution that could be made by new forms of housing such as co-operatives and low impact rural settlements.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] The first URGENT conference takes place today at Ruskin College, Walton Street, Oxford.

[2] URGENT was set up with the support of Friends of the Earth and ALARM UK at the beginning of 1998.It links together local community campaigns against greenfield housing and social/environmental organisations promoting genuinely sustainable housing policies. Network members include Friends of the Earth, the Empty Homes Agency, The Land is Ours and numerous other smaller groups from across the country.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust