The Live Wire



Press Release

Growth Points Policy Risks Undermining Sustainable Planning

24 October 2006

The Government today (Tuesday) announced plans for the major expansion of 45 towns and cities in England. The Growth Points initiative will see around £40m of Government funding and 100,000 additional homes built over and above those already planned for over the next ten years.

CPRE’s Planning Officer, Kate Gordon said,

‘Ministers say that proposals will be subject to testing and public consultation. However, this initiative risks making a mockery of our planning system. It appears to pre-empt the normal process whereby communities have a say on how their area should develop in the light of knowledge about environmental factors.

‘We need the Government to get behind the planning system, rather than undermine the democratic process in this way.’

‘We accept more homes are needed. But we don’t think the way the Government has gone about choosing these growth points for new housing will deliver sustainability – the best combination of environmental, social and economic progress.

‘Following this announcement, we’ll be campaigning for as much of this new housing as possible to be built on previously developed ‘brownfield’ land rather than on the countryside. We’ll be looking for the new homes to achieve high environmental standards, and to end up being much, much better than low density car-dependent sprawl.



Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to Central Lobby. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the Central Lobby service.

As such, Central Lobby does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.

Campaign to Protect Rural England

More from Dods

© Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd