Building sustainable communities

One of the Government’s big environmental achievements has been to increase housing densities from under 25 dwellings per hectare (dph), when it came to power, to over 40 dph in 2006. This has helped save vast areas of countryside and other green space. Because denser communities can support local services and public transport, it has cut carbon. And discouraging urban sprawl and promoting the use of previously developed land rather than greenfield sites has brought new life to many urban centres.