Scrap go-ahead for new homes on greenfield sites, urges MP

MINISTERS are under pressure to tell councils to withdraw planning permission for nearly 200,000 homes on greenfield sites after Boris Johnson announced that new homes will be built on previously developed land.

The Prime Minister announced in his party conference speech that “beautiful homes” should in future only be built “on brownfield sites in places where homes make sense”. Construction industry experts Glenigan said that nearly half of the 408,000 undeveloped plots of land which had planning permission in England in August – 187,000 homes – are planned for greenfield land where work is yet to start.

Last night Tory MP Bob Seely, who had led a back-bench rebellion against the planning reforms, told The Telegraph that the Government should now ensure that uneconomic developments on greenfield sites should now be pulled.

He said that ministers should order a halt to development on “green field, the economics of which do not stack up, but which have been given planning permission”.

The MPS are also likely to demand that Mr Johnson’s new “brownfield only” policy is written into the new Planning Bill which is currently being redrawn by new Housing secretary Michael Gove.

Theresa Villiers, a former Cabinet minister who has been fighting any loosening of planning laws, said: “The PM’S comments on planning in his speech are great, but if they are to have a real impact we need to see new protections for green fields added to planning law.

“And we also need housing targets reduced in the south to stem the flood of high rise, high density development which is creating immense pressure in commuter areas.”

The Campaign to Protect Rural England warned there were a further 340,000 new homes planned for greenfield sites in Green Belt and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty which had not been given formal planning permission.