Crispin Blunt

Conservative Party | Reigate

Housing

John Prescott's announcement that he was ignoring the advice of the local authorities of the South East by demanding house building targets which exceed their upper limits, confirmed Conservatives' fears that the Government's approach to planning is 'impose and deliver'. Seventy-five South East MPs, including three former Environment Secretaries added their signatures to a letter I sent to the Deputy Prime Minister, calling for planning decisions to be devolved to local communities.

What's the point of our region being the most economically successful, if the environmental and quality of life cost is so great and ongoing? Why shouldn't local councils be allowed to apply the brakes on development when excessive plans promise to destroy greenfields and increase congestion? Local people are afterall the best people to decide the levels of development most appropriate to local needs, and this is not a 'nimby' approach, but actually the most sustainable and beneficial approach for the country as a whole.

Last week I visited Leeds to see the challenge faced by many of our great northern cities, as part of my work on the Environment Select Committee. Some estates are adverts only for dilapidated housing and anti-social behaviour. A stark contrast to the prosperity we enjoy in Reigate and Banstead, but not unconnected in terms of our planning policy for the future.

By calling a halt to the concreting over of the South, businesses would have to plan for predicted labour shortages and would be more likely to invest in those parts of the region and the country which need the investment and urban regeneration most. A restricted planning policy in the South East would not only save our environment, it could be complemented by a more relaxed planning policy in parts of towns and cities which need new investment and have the brownfield land for redevelopment. It would be down to local councils to decide what's most appropriate.

Attempts to squeeze as many units of housing onto land in the South East in order to meet the central targets does not bode well for sustainable communities. The effect of the historic patterns of council housing development in cities such as Leeds can mean that within decades, estates end up as sink estates. If communities are to be sustainable they need to be well-planned and mixed. My reluctance to see Lego-style houses packed into the South East is not 'nimbyism'; my prime concern is sustainable development and sustainable communities. I am not opposed to all new houses. For example, the 440 homes to be built at Netherne seems to be an encouraging project which is trying to achieve a new village concept with a mixed development on the site of the old mental hospital.

Whilst the Government are putting regional bureaucracy and centralist planning first and foremost, we must develop ideas and policies which will protect our countryside, give real meaning to sustainability and benefit both North and South. That's One Nation!