Successive governments have made new housebuilding a priority. Local councils are being offered financial incentives in return for permitting new developments.

Housebuilding means climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions, increased road traffic and congestion, more strain on water sources, and increased quarrying in the countryside. We are losing the tranquillity from green open spaces, fields and woodland – and the pressure to build more houses will only increase this.

Our viewWe want to stop this increasing urban sprawl into the countryside. We believe that there are many other ways in which people across England can be housed properly.Instead of building new houses in greenfield sites, we want to see local councils putting pressure on housebuilders to support urban regeneration, so that people have greater options for homes in thriving, pleasant communities without moving out of town. Where new houses do need to be built, developers should be making a lot more use of ‘brownfield’ sites, which have already been developed in the past.