Date published: 2007/08/15
The BBC says:
About two million homes will have to be built on greenfield sites to meet the prime minister's plans to tackle the housing shortage, a think tank warns.
Gordon Brown has pledged three million homes will be built by 2020, mainly on previously developed brownfield sites.
But a Social Market Foundation study claims two million homes would have to be built on undeveloped countryside or green belt around cities and towns.
The government reiterated that it plans "robust protection" of the green belt.
...
The SMF also added that the green belt, which was planned to prevent urban sprawl, contains ex-industrial sites and scrubland and "was not as green as people believe".The think tank suggests there may be a case for reconsidering the future of the green belt which often protects "neither wildlife nor areas of outstanding beauty".
Kate Barker (government consultant on housing) suggested on Radio 4 this morning that the SMF had gotten their sums wrong. On the other hand, the SMF is correct that much greenbelt is "not as green as people believe". (And not only are there "ex-industrial sites and scrubland" in greenbelt, but also lots of agricultural sites, which as far as the environment is concerned are not that different from other industrial sites.) This shows the power of words. You stick the word "green" on something and suddenly everybody thinks it must be preserved. Similarly you stick the word "brown" on something (i.e. "brownfield") and suddenly everbody thinks it should be developed. Most of the "greenbelt" near Cambridge is not worth preserving. And most of the "brownfield" sites (e.g. people's back gardens) are greener than the greenbelt. Every site should be considered on its own merits, but the ruling elite has trouble with that concept. So we are stuck with an antiquated planning system which is making development in the country worse, not better.
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