Prescott will blight greenfield land
Wednesday 19th March, 2003
Up to half a million homes will be built on greenfield land in the South East of England over the next 30 years, destroying an area of countryside larger than Manchester.
Planning consultants have told John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, that a swathe of unspoilt land will have to be sacrificed under his massive house-building programme, to be announced this week.
Prescott's plans are designed to tackle the chronic housing shortage in the region, where high property prices have made it difficult to recruit low-paid workers such as nurses and teachers.
Environmentalists described the proposals to concrete large areas of greenfield in an already congested region as 'frightening'.
However, studies recommend that in the Milton Keynes area 250,000 homes should be built on 17,500 acres of greenfield land. At Ashford, Kent, provision has been made for 29,000 homes on 2,000 acres of greenfield land.
And in the Stansted region - along the M11 corridor between London and Cambridge - up to 197,000 new homes will be built on 12,000 greenfield acres by 2026.
For the Thames Gateway, 200,000 homes are to be built in a 40-mile development from inner London to Southend and Medway by 2015 with the likelihood this figure will be doubled to 400,000 for 2030.
If 80 per cent of these new homes went on brownfield sites it would leave 80,000 homes for greenfield sites covering some 5,000 acres.
Prescott will pledge a multi-billion pound package to the developments to ensure communities are properly served with infrastructure and transport links.
Green campaigners are angr y that more than 166 square miles of green belt are earmarked for development in England - an area larger than Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton.