‘Today’s report from the Quality of Life Policy Group is David Cameron’s chance to embrace a long-term environmental agenda and put meat on the bones of his green pronouncements. We hope he will support its direction and demonstrate that the Conservatives really are serious about environmental politics.’

This was the response of Ben Stafford, Head of Campaigns at CPRE [1], to today’s (Thursday) publication of the report by John Gummer and Zac Goldsmith’s Quality of Life Policy Group. [2]

The report is wide-ranging and a far better reflection of the need for truly sustainable development than the earlier Competitiveness Policy Review from John Redwood. [3]

Among the welcome proposals in the Quality of Life report are:

• that the UK’s progress should be measured in broader than simply economic terms – social and environmental wellbeing matter too;

• a focus on working within, rather than fundamentally changing, the current planning system. [4] This stands in contrast to the Government’s proposals for a major overhaul and challenges John Redwood’s scepticism about the role of planning; [5]

• an emphasis on ‘smart growth’, with the proactive application of land use planning, building to higher densities, provision of local services and public transport and the integration of green space at its heart;

• a significant moratorium on new road and airport building to allow their impact to be properly assessed. This would make sense both in terms of limiting climate-changing emissions and protecting our precious countryside;

• greater emphasis both on the local food economy and local transport. This is good news for climate change, and a real boost for rural communities, which have become increasingly isolated in recent times.

The report is weaker on the environmental challenge posed by housing growth. CPRE supports the imperative of providing affordable housing, but there is a danger that politicians of all parties are falling into the trap of believing that the key to greater affordability is supplying ever more land for housing, a view not supported by recent research for CPRE. [6] The report’s proposal that political responsibility within government for housing and planning should be separated will not help to address the environmental impacts of housing growth.

Ben Stafford said:

‘We welcome this report’s strong statement that a future Conservative Government will have to be resolute in its determination to infuse all of its policies with clear environmental purpose.’

‘The crucial test now will be how many of the Gummer and Goldsmith recommendations David Cameron takes on board. This is his chance to forge a distinctive “blue-green agenda”, but it is difficult to see how Mr Gummer’s vision can be squared with the Redwood approach. It is time to choose.’

– END –

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is a charity which promotes the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of rural England. We advocate positive solutions for the long-term future of the countryside. Founded in 1926, we have 60,000 supporters and a branch in every county. President: Bill Bryson. Patron: Her Majesty The Queen.

2. The report of the Conservative Party’s Quality of Life Policy Group, Blueprint for a Green Economy, is one of a number of reports commissioned by Conservative Leader David Cameron. The various groups have reported through the autumn, and the Quality of Life Group is the last to do so. The groups’ reports will help to shape the party’s manifesto for the next General Election. The report, chaired by Rt Hon John Gummer MP, a former Conservative Secretary of State for the Environment, and Zac Goldsmith, former editor of The Ecologist magazine and now a Conservative parliamentary candidate, is simply a set of recommendations at this stage. The Shadow Cabinet will decide which of the recommendations of this and other Policy Groups form part of the Conservative manifesto. The full text of the report can be viewed at http://www.qualityoflifechallenge.com/.

3. The report of the Conservative Party’s Policy Group on Economic Competitiveness was published on 17 August, 2007.

4. Page 61 of the report: ‘the planning system has suffered far too much change over the past few years, and…a regime of consistency, adaptation and refinement will serve the interests of development much better than a policy of radical change’.

5. Other welcome planning-related proposals in this report include that to bring environmental and planning policy back together within government, and specifics such as support for changes to the VAT regime to encourage brownfield development and building repairs and renovation.

6. CPRE commissioned independent consultants Green Balance to conduct research into the relationship between planning, housing land supply and housing affordability. As well as analysing broad trends, through case studies a variety of market conditions were explored. Areas chosen were Darlington, Poundbury, Dorchester and West Dorset, Cambridgeshire, Gravesham, Dartford and Torridge. Copies of the report Planning for Housing Affordability and Recommendations are available at http://www.cpre.org.uk/library/results/housing-and-urban-policy.