Government housing policy under fire
3rd November 2008
Anne Main has today praised a report from the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee which criticises Government housing targets, and underlines the potential they may have to drive building in the Green Belt.
Anne Main, MP for St Albans, has today praised a report from the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee which criticises Government housing targets, and underlines the potential they may have to drive building in the Green Belt.
The report examines the environmental impact of the Government's target to build 3 million new homes by 2020.
The report noted that:"We are concerned that by continuing to impose high national house-building targets and regional plans during a market downturn, the effect of Government policy is to make it impossible for local authorities to prevent planning permission being granted for development on land that is not currently needed and that would not otherwise be granted...We recommend that Government ensures this does not happen by revising urgently its targets and regional plans in the light of current market conditions, and by reintroducing a clear sequential test in favour of brownfield sites into planning policy."
Anne said:
"By turning their fire on the Government, the Committee summed up the views of many of my constituents. In setting such high targets and kowtowing to developers at a time when house prices are falling dramatically, the Government risks sacrificing our green spaces and losing a resource which can never be replaced. We need to halt the Government's green belt revision programme and scrap unrealistic housing targets.
Last week, I called for a debate on the Government's attempts to prop up the housing market by buying significant numbers of homes directly from developers through the National Clearing House policy. This report further underlines that the Government's housing policy is a flawed strategy and I really think it must be reassessed."
BACKGROUND
Link to full text of House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee's report: "Greener homes for the future? An environmental analysis of the Government's housebuilding plans". Twelfth Report of Session 2007-08
Link to Anne's call for debate on housing policy "
