Report damns RSS threat to countryside (Cheltenham Liberal Democrats)

Cheltenham Liberal Democrats <info@cheltlibdems.org.uk>

Report damns RSS threat to countryside

November 3, 2008 12:01 AM

AN INFLUENTIAL GROUP OF MPs have today [Monday] called for the suspension of the government's Regional Spatial Strategies because of the threat of unnecessary development they pose to the countryside. The Environmental Audit Committee - whose members include Cheltenham Liberal Democrat MP Martin Horwood - have called for the government to revisit its housebuilding plans "In light of the latest economic projections, fundamental changes in the mortgage market, and falling house prices, the Government should urgently review the assumptions on which its 3 million new homes target is based."

In a separate parliamentary answer to Martin Horwood, minister Sadiq Khan has revealed that the South-West Regional Spatial Strategy's housing numbers are based on economic growth projections of 3.2% per annum for 20 years - wildly unrealistic now that the UK is heading into recession.

CPRE has also issued a report today highlighting the threat to more than 27,000 hectares of countryside from the Regional Spatial Strategies - an area of countryside the size of Birmingham.

Martin Horwood, whose constituency faces imminent development of green belt and greenfield sites by developers quoting the 'emerging RSS', welcomed the report and furiously condemned the Regional Spatial Strategy which has earmarked 13,800 new houses for Cheltenham borough and the immediately surrounding area. This number includes a hugely controversial 6,300 homes planned for greenfield sites to the northwest near Swindon Village and south of the town near Leckhampton which have been opposed by local elected representatives at every level and spurred local campaigning organisations into action.

Martin said: "We are fighting appeals against developers right now who are trying to jump the gun and develop the greenfield sites. The threat to the countryside is real and imminent. But the numbers on which this wretched plan is based are now complete fantasy. 3.2% would be beyond Alastair Darling's wildest dreams of economic growth. The reality is that we are heading into recession, the huge totals envisaged by the government's planners will never now be built and yet we are allowing the developers to grab the most profitable greenfield sites first. Once lost, these green spaces will never be recovered.

"The truth is that even Kate Barker, the economist behind the government's original plan to influence affordability by increasing supply more and more, said that if the conditions changed the numbers should be changed accordingly. Well the conditions have certainly changed now. It was always doubtful that supply of land was more important than the easy supply of credit in house price inflation. It is crystal clear now as credit has dried up and house prices are falling. But, as the Environmental Audit Committee makes clear, local councils cannot protect the greenfield sites if the Regional Spatial Strategies release all the land in one go.

"I'm particularly pleased that the committee has urged the government to reintroduce the sequential test to prioritise brownfield land, to strengthen the 'exceptional circumstances' in which green belt can be developed and to suspend "