Climate Targets For North West Threatened By Building Ambitions

21 November 2006

As three weeks of intense debate over the future shape of North West England [1] drew to a close, environmental groups today (Tuesday) spoke of their hopes and fears for the region.

Commenting on the opening phase of a public hearing into the North West’s draft Regional Spatial Strategy, Andy Yuille, North West policy officer for the Campaign to Protect Rural England [2] (CPRE), said:

‘This strategy is critical for the future of our region’s environment. We still see dark clouds looming over the Green Belt, where developers want more freedom to build – although most local councils have said that they are keen to protect our countryside, as it adds to the quality of life our region has to offer.

‘Most worrying is the proposal for over 400,000 new homes to be built in the next fifteen years or so. In many cases, water supplies, sewage and public transport are not guaranteed. No “climate proofing”, such as flood risk assessment, has been done, and the Environment Agency say that even with energy efficiency measures, this level of housing will just increase our carbon emissions.

‘We believe the priorities for new housing should be to meet the needs of the homeless and those on limited incomes and that the great majority of homes can be sited on existing “brownfield” land close to workplaces, shops and services.

Andy Yuille added: ‘The North West has nearly 130,000 empty properties - the highest of any English region.[3] Many of these can be restored and refurbished at lower financial and environmental cost than building brand new homes.’

Friends of the Earth’s [4] regional campaigns coordinator Frank Kennedy said he was ‘very reassured’ to see a consensus emerging that a strong climate change policy, with tough long-term targets and year-on-year reductions of carbon emissions, should be set in the emerging ‘master plan’ for the region.

‘It’s heartening that the North West Regional Assembly has now agreed to include a strong climate policy. If the Panel goes ahead and recommends this, the North West could have climate-sensitive plans in place ahead of the national Government’s Climate Change Act – promised in the Queen’s Speech.’

Planning has a crucial role to play in tackling climate change, says CPRE’s Andy Yuille. ‘This requires a strong planning system focussed on delivering the renewal of our towns and cities, and creating compact communities where people can live, work and play – instead of the spread of low density, traffic-generating sprawl. The recently published Stern Review on the economics of climate change recognises this.’[5]

Networks of voluntary groups, such as the NW Environment Link and NW Transport Activists Roundtable, are also concerned about the 26 ‘regionally significant investment sites’ that the Regional Assembly and NW Development Agency are promoting. They point out that several of these are far from population centres and warn that, if development there went ahead, they would substantially increase car journeys to work and freight journeys by road.

The Highways Agency, in its evidence on the draft Master Plan for the North West, has also expressed concern about the stress so many large employment sites would impose on the highway network.

Lillian Burns, Convenor of the NW Transport Activists Roundtable, said: ‘No case has been proved for more than doubling the presently agreed number of strategic regional employment sites as opposed to simply encouraging smaller sites in more sustainable locations.’

The Examination in Public will re-convene on 9 January for a further three weeks to debate themes including ground and air transport, waste management, landscape and wildlife sites, and energy policy. More detailed attention will be given to the proposed ‘city regions’ based on Manchester, Liverpool and Central Lancashire, as well as to the ‘sub-regions’ of South Cheshire, North Lancashire and Cumbria.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. The Examination in Public into the draft Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS), drawn up by the NW Regional Assembly (NWRA), is being held in front of a Government-appointed independent Panel of Inspectors. Taking place at the Wigan Investment Centre where the NWRA is based, the EiP accompanies the process of setting a new RSS, which will set out the scale, speed, and broad location of all development in the North West up to 2021. Once the Panel has made its recommendations, Government Office NW in conjunction with the Department for Communities and Local Government will confirm or revise the final document. This will then become legally binding, and all future local plans (to be set out in Local Development Frameworks drawn up by city, borough and county councils throughout the region) must conform with it.

The Government Office, NW Assembly and Development Agency have been joined by representatives of local authorities, business interests, and voluntary/community organisations as participants in the EiP. Matters covered in the opening three weeks have included the Strategy’s core vision and principles, the overall spatial strategy, locations for economic and retail development, housing, sustainable communities and the Green Belt.

2. CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is a charity which promotes the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of rural England. We advocate positive solutions for the long-term future of the countryside. Founded in 1926, we have 60,000 supporters and a branch in every county. President: Sir Max Hastings. Patron: Her Majesty The Queen.

3. In 2005 there were 128,473 empty homes in the North West, an increase of 1,000 from 2004. See http://www.emptyhomes.com/resources/stats/statistics.html for details. Statistics compiled from Housing Investment Programme returns.

4. Friends of the Earth is an influential environmental campaigning organisation with a unique network of campaigning local groups, working in over 200 communities throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

5. On 30 October, economist Nicholas Stern published his report The Economics of Climate Change, commissioned by HM Treasury and available from www.hm-treasury.gov.uk. He concludes, for example, that ‘Spatial and strategic planning can affect patterns of energy consumption. Higher density urban environments, for example, typically consume less energy for transport and in buildings. In addition, land use controls such as restrictions on the availability and pricing of parking spaces, the use of pedestrian zones and parks, and land use zonal strategies including congestion charging), have the potential to support integrated public transport to reduce the use of private motor vehicles.’ (p 384)

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