Archived press release

MPs SLAM PRESCOTT OVER GREENFIELD HOUSING

30 July 1998

[1] The Tenth Report on Housing of the Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee was published 30th July 1998.

Friends of the Earth commissioned research to submit to the Select Committee. The results were published in May 1998 in a report - Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Urban Reform -written by urban regeneration consultants URBED. This was the first comprehensive assessment of 'urban capacity' ever made for the country as a whole. It drew together the most recent research evidence to show that there is far more opportunity to provide homes in towns and cities than previously thought. It concluded that “it is feasible to aim for a 75%target for new homes in urban areas by developing a new agenda for urban renaissance”.The additional housing capacity comes not just from building on brownfield sites, but from making better use of existing homes and buildings, for example from 'living over the shop',or converting empty offices to housing.

[2] The other key recommendations of the Committee were for:
* A financial strategy for the development of recycled land;
* Swifter powers to bring brownfield land into use, including compulsory purchase;
* A sequential approach so that land within towns and cities is used before greenfield;
* Reducing the vacancy rate to 3 per cent by 2005;
* Reducing VAT on conversions to as low a level as the law permits;
* Extensions to existing urban areas to be built to urban designs and densities;
* Stronger protection for designated countryside;
* Continued protection of Green Belt;
* A strategy for social housing;
* Abolition of the 5-year land supply;
* Less imposition of housing figures on regional / local authorities by the Government.

[3] In February 1998 the new Government published a White Paper on household growth called “Planning for the Communities of the Future” in which John Prescott proposed to“raise the proportion of new homes we expect to be built on previously developed land from 50% to 60%, to be achieved over the next ten years”.

The new Government has made a number of controversial decisions in favour of greenfield housing as follows:
21 January 1998 - Allowing the release of Green Belt land around Newcastle for 2500 new houses, although there are approximately 2500 empty homes in Newcastle city centre.
16 January 1998 - sanctioning the release of Green Belt land to the West of Stevenage for 10,000 new homes - the largest and most controversial greenfield housebuilding development being contemplated anywhere in the country.
8 December 1997 - ordering West Sussex County Council to increase their housing target by 12,800. West Sussex has now gained leave to challenge the Secretary of State in the High Court over this decision. The proposals by the County Council for a lower housing figure were backed by the independent 'Panel' at the examination in public.

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