Fight launched against Green Belt plans
Monday 8th July, 2002
Ministers are to pump £1 billion into a building programme in a bid to provide affordable housing for nurses, police officers and other key public-sector staff in the South-East.
The money will mean a near-doubling of the Housing Corporation's annual budget - the body used to channel funds to housing associations across the country.
The move is expected to be announced next week as part of Gordon Brown's long awaited Comprehensive Spending Review, which will set Whitehall budgets for the next three years.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott will then unveil the full details of the proposals, which have cemented a political alliance between him and the Chancellor.
Senior ministers have become alarmed by spiralling house prices in the South-East which are effectively preventing hundreds of thousands of key workers from getting a foot on the property ladder.
Mr Brown is sanctioning a massive building programme in four satellite towns: Ashford in Kent, Milton Keynes, Stansted and the Thames Gateway area, east of London.
A Treasury spokesman said that the Chancellor was worried about the "affordability" of homes for public-sector staff, many of whom earn less than £20,000 a year.
But the Tories warned that the plans could " plough through the green belt " and called for schemes to be confined to so-called " brownfield" sites - sections of land which have already been developed.