Significant swathes of countryside will be lost if the Government continues to impose top-down policies on regional decision-makers. This is the finding of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) [1] following its investigation into existing and emerging Regional Spatial Strategies [2], which set out regional policies, including levels of housing development.

CPRE has found that:

• over 2,250 hectares of greenfield land - including areas of land currently designated as Green Belt - is set to be developed for housing every year. By 2020 this would mean the lose of 27,182ha, an area equivalent to over 36,000 football pitches or the size of the City of Birmingham [3];
• proposals made by regional planners to reduce the environmental impact and respond to public concerns are routinely overridden by Government. Regional housing targets have been increased and policies to secure less damaging development have been seriously diluted, often in the final stages of the planning process; and
• regional strategies frequently contain contradictory policies - in particular policies to reduce carbon emissions sit alongside proposals for airport expansion rendering the targets undeliverable.
  

Fiona Howie, CPRE’s Senior Regional Policy Officer, said:

‘We do need more homes, but they should be delivered in a way that will not damage the environment and people’s quality of life. The Government’s aspirations for 3 million new homes by 2020 [4] need to be reassessed, both in light of the current economic climate and the implications of such high levels of development for the Green Belt, the wider countryside and the achievement of emission reduction targets.’

Proposals to reform regional planning were published by Government in July 2007. The recommendations aimed to ensure the delivery of economic growth and housing development, with little regard for wider environmental considerations such as the need to protect and enhance landscape and biodiversity [5].

Fiona Howie added:

‘It is nonsense to plan as if land is an infinite resource. Current plans need to focus on the regeneration of urban areas and the reuse of previously developed land. Green Belt land and open countryside need to be more highly valued and protected.’

Fiona Howie concluded:

‘If regional planning is to be reformed it must be done in ways which address the environmental shortcomings of current practice. In future, regional plans should set out an environmentally sustainable and achievable vision for the regions, developed in genuine partnership with those living and working in the area. Regional decisions should not be undermined by Government.’

– 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. www.cpre.org.uk

2. Regional Spatial Strategies are statutory documents that set out a vision for what, where, when and how development should occur in the English regions over the next 15 to 20 years.

3.  An average area of a football pitch is 0.75ha and Birmingham City Council covers an area of 270 square kilometres (27,000 hectares). Based on dwellings being built on greenfield land at a density of 31 dwellings per hectare, and the annual number of new homes planned to be built on greenfield land in existing and emerging RSSs being 70,220, over the next 12 years 27,182ha of greenfield land will have housing built on it.

4. Department for Communities and Local Government (2007) Homes for the Future: More affordable, more sustainable.

5. HM Treasury, Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform published the Review of Sub-National Economic Development and Regeneration in July 2007. It contains proposals for regional planning powers to be passed from the Regional Assemblies to the Regional Development Agencies.