Archived press release

Housing nightmare for south east

8 October 1999

Almost 200,000 extra homes could be built on greenfield sites in the South East over the next 16 years, if Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott forces local councils to accept his Inspectors' recommendations [1]. This represents two new cities the size of Southampton.

Councils could be forced to designate Green Belt land, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and even major wildlife sites for housing if the plan goes ahead. This could become an electoral nightmare for the Labour Government [2].

Tony Bosworth, Friends of the Earth's Housing Campaigner, said:

“If John Prescott forces councils to plan for over one million new homes, almost 200,000 more will have to be built in the countryside. This will wreck some of Britain's most beautiful areas, generate huge amounts of traffic and cause more congestion and pollution, in an already overcrowded area. It will provoke huge opposition from suburban communities in marginal constituencies. This could become an electoral nightmare for Labour. ”

SERPLAN had recommended that councils should initially plan to build between 892,000 and 914,000 new homes in this period. John Prescott's Inspectors say this should be increased to 1,098,500. SERPLAN warned of serious environmental consequences of providing more than 900,000 new homes [3].

NOTE FOR EDITORS

[1] The Panel Report of the Public Examination into the SERPLAN draft regional planning guidance for the South East, published today, has recommended that councils in the region outside London should plan for 1,098,500 new homes to be built in the region by 2016. The Panel says only 50 per cent of these need be built in existing towns and cities. This means an extra 200,000 homes are likely to be built on greenfield sites (see table below).

As can be seen, 183,650-192,450 more new homes will have to be built on greenfield sites if the Inspectors' recommendation is accepted, than in SERPLAN's original plan.By comparison, Southampton has only about 90,000 homes.

[2] 19 of Labour's 100 most marginal seats are in the South East outside London,many in areas likely to be at risk of massive greenfield development.

[3] SERPLAN has said that building more than 900,000 new dwellings would 'result in significant and widespread environmental impacts'. They wanted to plan for only 892-914,000.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust