Outrage at building a million properties ‘to ruin countryside’

A PLAN to build more than a million homes will change the face of England’s countryside for ever, campaigners warn.

An area of countryside the size of Birmingham will be destroyed if Chancellor Philip Hammond gives the go-ahead to a “brain-belt” between Oxford and Cambridge, says the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

Last month the Government announced its preferred corridor for a new road and rail link that would run between the two cities via Milton Keynes, as part of a new development proposal, coined the Oxford-Cambridge Arc.

The CPRE says that would see as many as 66,000 acres (27,000 hectares) of farmland and woodland concreted over by developers.

The National Infrastructure Commission, which is backing the scheme, recommends building the houses and flats in the Arc by 2050, in order to “boost economic growth”.

But according to CPRE’s analysis, with capacity for just under 50,000 houses on previously developed, or brownfield, land, the vast majority of these new homes would be built on areas of open countryside.

No more than 18 per cent of the locally identified need for affordable homes will be met by the development.

Mr Hammond is set to announce his acceptance of the scheme in his Budget speech next Monday – despite no formal public consultation, environmental assessment or Parliamentary inquiry into the plans.

Paul Miner, head of strategic plans and devolution at the CPRE, said: “This development will change the face of England’s countryside for ever. Yet no formal assessment of the environmental impact has taken place.

“It is imperative that a strategic environmental assessment is conducted. It must look at the impacts of the proposed housing and transport development on the countryside, people’s health and wellbeing, and climate change.”