Housing policy sidelines environment

Monday, 31 January 2005 12:00 AM

The Government's housing policy fails to recognise the importance of the environment, according to a new report from the Environmental Audit Committee.

The MPs conclude that in the drive to build more houses, particularly in the south east, the environment is being left as a "bolt-on".

And, the report says that there is an "inadequate" evidence base for the Government's housing policies and demands that there should be no further proposals to increase housing until a better evidence base is formulated.

The report comes as the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is hosting a "sustainable communities" conference in Manchester and launching a new Government five-year plan.

Most controversial, are the Government's plans to build over one million new homes in the south east.

EAC committee chairman, Peter Ainsworth, said: "The Government's housing policy is an alarming example of disjointed thinking in an area where joined-up policy is crucial.

"John Prescott's new five year plan still misses the key point: until the Government takes proper account of the strain which house building places on the environment, we will continue to create serious problems for ourselves and future generations."

He argued that while the committee accepts the need to build more houses "as things stand, the principal beneficiary of housing growth will be property developers, with the environment we all depend on being the principal loser."

The MPs were particularly concerned about infrastructure planning, arguing that a failure to fund new infrastructure will lead to "badly built homes, in poorly designed communities, with inadequate transport and public services; a far cry from the 'sustainable communities' which are the Government's stated aim."

The idea that more houses must be built in the south east is criticised as a "predict and provide" approach which assumes that other regions will remain less prosperous and represents a "direct attack on the principles of a democratic planning system."

In addition, the committee says it is "astonishing" that neither DEFRA or the ODPM has done a full environmental assessment of the proposed housing growth areas.

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