News
Room for 1 mln new homes on brownfield land
Britain has enough brownfield land to build nearly one million new homes, which could help alleviate a housing shortage propelling property prices way beyond the reach of many first-time buyers.
Build a million green belt homes, urges think tank
Farm and green belt land should be used to create a million new homes and a hundred thousand hectares of fresh woodland, according to a report that today proposes a radical shake-up in land use.
Tories will build on green belt to aid first time buyers
THE Conservatives abandoned their traditional defence of the green belt yesterday and promised a programme of house building for first-time buyers.
Battle for Priest Hill Green Belt
THE battle for Priest Hill is about to begin as environmentalists and neighbours oppose a development bid for planning permission to build 90 homes on this Green Belt site in Ewell.
Building on Green Belt rises by 60pc
Labour has presided over a 60 per cent increase in house building on Green Belt land, new figures showed yesterday. The disclosure provoked fresh criticism of John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, for concreting over much of rural England.
Housing chief calls for loosening of green belt
THE head of one of Scotland's leading house-builders has called for a redrawing of Edinburgh's green belt to accommodate "sensible" development.
Organic land increases in county
Organic farmland in Cornwall has increased by 18% in 2005 according to new statistics from Organic South West.
LANDOWNERS could make more than £700 million from the West of Stevenage development.
Locals cry foul at football ground approval
John Prescott was accused of breaking Labour's own planning policy yesterday when he approved construction of a 22,000-seat football stadium in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
More plans for housing development
MORE housing is planned for the borough of Reigate and Banstead under yet another development plan - and the last chance for residents to have their say is fast approaching.
England 'is in need of over 200,000 new homes a year'
A recent report by the Town and Country Planning Association entitled Housing the Next Generation - Household Growth, Housing Demand and Housing Requirements examines how the number of households in England is expected to grow over the next 15 years and the principal reasons for that growth.
HIGHLY controversial plans for 3,600 homes to be built on green belt land between Stevenage and Hitchin have been approved.
Prescott backs green belt housing
John Prescott has given his backing to one of the biggest building schemes approved on green belt land.
Bombshell as motorway station at Junction 2 gets green light
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott approved the new Motorway Service Area (MSA) to be built on greenbelt at Burtley Wood, off the A355 near Beaconsfield and Junction Two of the M40.
Planning bid for homes and nature site on green belt
A PLANNING application for 90 homes and a nature conservation site at Priest Hill has been drawn up.
City Homes plan won't save towns
Oxford City Council's proposal to build an 8,000-home settlement on the edge of Oxford may not be enough to save Bicester and Didcot from future development. The warning has come from the Campaign to Protect Rural England which said the divisions between local councils on new housing would have the Government "licking its lips".
Can you multiply your investment cash 10 or even 15-fold with very little, if any, risk? You won't do it with bank accounts, unit trusts or even a sexy hedge fund or two.
An 8,000-home town could be built on greenfield land on the north-eastern outskirts of Norwich, plans revealed today.
Prescott says no to plan for 135 homes on green belt
The plan to sell 21 acres of land for £18m to build 135 homes at the St Piers Lane site to part fund the modernisation of the campus was met with dozens of objections from local residents and parish councils who believe the locality is unsuitable.
..Try telling people that you think the green belt should be scrapped - worse still, that you think the entire system of Government planning should be done away with - and you won't win many friends. To argue against the belt, which surrounds London, Birmingham and other big cities and which celebrates its 50th anniversary this month, is to most people like calling for clean drinking water to be abolished, or campaigning to bring back witch-ducking.
Green belt campaigner Tim Harrold stands on the edge of a field in his home county of Surrey and makes a grand sweeping gesture towards the horizon.
Protect green belt, say Midlanders
"Green belt land should only be freed up for housing development in exceptional circumstances, when there is no land available in the towns to build on," he said...
Don't protect the Green Belt - build on it
Caroline Spelman, the UK Conservative Party's shadow local government secretary, has attacked the New Labour government for turning the Green Belt into more of an elastic band, increasing it where there is no demand for new building and loosening it where there is.
THE cost of land needed for new homes could be about to change sharply - with the value of "brownfield" land previously built on in towns and cities falling while greenfield land in the country becomes more valuable, says a new survey.
Next stage in U.K. housing policy extends land-use direction powers of the regions
..South East covers about one eighth of the total land area of England, embracing no fewer than nine counties and several unitary authorities such as Southampton, Portsmouth and Brighton on the South Coast. Within in this large domain there would be numbers of housing markets, for example Milton Keynes to the north, Oxford City Region, North Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Sussex Coast including Brighton, Ashford, Kent and Canterbury and East Kent.
Housing plans: market forces will ruin brownfield progress
New housing and planning proposals unveiled this week could undermine the government's own Sustainable Communities plan, lead to a relaxation of the brownfield target and exacerbate regional inequalities, critics claim.
When will Mr Prescott face the facts about our housing needs?
..For years, new homes in Britain were built at a density of around 63 per acre. Last year, no fewer than 96 new dwellings were built on the average acre of building land - half as many again. As a result, Britain now has the pokiest new homes in Europe.
Countryside 'is under threat' from Prescott's homes plan
Plans to force councils to release more land for housing in areas where house prices are high or rising were unveiled yesterday.
Prescott attacked for green-belt homes plan
John Prescott has been accused of launching an " assault on the green belt" after he unveiled planning reforms designed to find land for 1.1 million new homes.
Government announces housing shake up
..But the Tories said the government still planned to build too many new houses on greenbelt land, and that the new plans included ideas to force councils to release greenfield sites for development.
Prescott set to allow more greenbelt homes
More greenfield sites look set be earmarked for housing under controversial plans to be outlined next week by the deputy prime minister, John Prescott.
Prescott backs land tax to fund services
Ministers are considering a new land tax to fund schools, hospitals and roads needed in the south east of England.
Developers aim to use 1,200 acres of green belt THAMES GATEWAY
Developers want the government to release 1,200 acres of green belt land so that they can fund and build a town of 14,000 new homes in the heart of the Thames Gateway growth area.
Green belts won't work when they are made of elastic
ENGLAND's countryside retains its beauty partly thanks to green belts, stretches of building-free land that hem in the country's larger cities. Their purpose is to prevent the kind of sprawl that has seen Los Angeles spread 60 miles from its centre--a situation which if replicated in Britain would mean the suburbs of London nudging the English Channel.
A city landowner has unveiled details of an ambitious bid to put up hundreds of new homes on the outskirts of Exeter.
Simon Lloyd is in talks with developers to build up to 800 new homes on farmland in Exwick.
Councils shamed by rural campaign
Countryside campaigners have named and shamed those councils they say are still allowing developers to build housing estates on green fields.
..The CPRE also names ten top performing councils: Oxford, Cheltenham, Nottingham, Brighton and Hove, Reading, Exeter, Southampton, Bournemouth, Bristol and Slough.
2,400 acres of green belt lost each year
An average of 2,400 acres of undeveloped green belt is being built on each year, the Government has admitted in a parliamentary written answer.
Green belts, which are intended to restrain towns from sprawling outwards, are under review between Nottingham and Derby, around London, Bristol and Bath, in south-east Dorset, around Poole and around Cheltenham and Gloucester.
Boundaries have already been moved by the Government to accommodate more housing in Tyne and Wear, Greater Manchester and Merseyside, around London and Cambridge.
London mayor Ken Livingstone hopes to build 440,000 new homes in London by 2016 in a bid to house the Capital's swelling population...
The Central region, which comprises the boroughs of Kensington & Chelsea, Camden, Islington, Wandsworth, Lambeth, Southwark and the City of Westminster is forecast to see 107,000 new homes by 2016 (the most in the plan).
The largest development of new housing will take place in the East London/Thames Gateway and will cover ten boroughs on both sides of the Thames (City, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Baking & Dagenham, Havering, Redbridge, Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley).
Defend our green belts from ruin, Labour told
Green belts are under threat from airports, housing developments, roads, sports facilities and business parks, despite it being Government policy to protect them, the Campaign to Protect Rural England said yesterday.
Without the West Midlands green belt, Birmingham would have merged with Coventry and engulfed Kidderminster, Bromsgrove, Lichfield and Tamworth, says the study, and without the London green belt, imposed after rampant sprawl in the 1920s and 1930s, development might have reached the coast.
Yet Government proposals to expand airports, including Gatwick, threaten 1,750 acres - equivalent to the whole of the smallest green belt around Burton upon Trent.
Underlying farm fortunes are 'encouraging'
"The average for all types of farm was 15 per cent return on £133,000 capital. Although that is below the return on equity of many FTSE 100 companies, it is well above the return in many other businesses,"
UK homeowners invest £4.2bn in their gardens
UK homeowners spend a huge £4.2 billion a year on their gardens, and while most see it as a relaxing haven, one in six (17%) view it as an investment, hoping to see an increase in the value of their property in return for spending in their garden, according to research from National Savings and Investments
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation
The focus of current policy is short term; it does not address the endemic problems making shortage of housing land a recurring and increasing problem over the last few decades. A wider debate is required; first, to consider how to provide sufficient homes, in the right location and at an affordable price; second, to address the root causes of land shortage for housing and how they can be addressed.
Increasing threat to green belt
bbc.co.uk 25/05/05
The CPRE said developments that threatened the Green Belt across the country include:
UK homeowners invest £4.2bn in their gardens
easier.com 18/05/05
UK homeowners spend a huge £4.2 billion a year on their gardens, and while most see it as a relaxing haven, one in six (17%) view it as an investment, hoping to see an increase in the value of their property in return for spending in their garden, according to research from National Savings and Investments
edinburghnews.com 17/05/05
THE recent signs in the housing market are that it is set for a further slowdown. But one part of that market appears to be bucking the trend.
Questions over greenbelt's future
bbc.co.uk 03/05/05
A disagreement between the county council and deputy prime minister John Prescott earlier this year over the preservation of greenbelt land around Gloucester and Cheltenham could escalate into a full-blown row.
Plough your cash into land for a handsome investment return
scotsman.com 25/04/05
LAND banking - previously the exclusive preserve of the rich and property developers - is fast becoming accessible to those without millions of pounds to invest.
Join the great Basingstoke land grab
Basingstoke Observer, 24th February, 2005
The race for land around booming Basingstoke has been started by a land speculation firm urging people to buy shares in Oakley farmland which has space for a mini-village of 1500 homes.
manchesteronline.co.uk, 11th Feb, 2005
PLANS for a huge £250m transport depot on greenbelt land have sparked an angry reaction from families and campaigners
County to pilot self build homes
bbc.co.uk, 29th Jan, 2005
First-time buyers in Carmarthenshire are to be given advice and training to help them build their own homes.
Land shortage sees prices soar
Farmers Weekly, 14th January, 2005
The chronic shortage of land has boosted values, say agents, although actual estimates vary.
Campaigners plea to halt greenfield homes plan
news.scotsman.com, 20th October, 2004
The Deputy Prime Minister is being urged to save greenfields from the threat of major new housing developments.
Is the green belt getting looser?
BBC News, 12th September, 2004
The Deputy Prime Minister is being urged to save greenfields from the threat of major new housing developments.
Green Belt land for sale on web auction
stalbansobserver.co.uk, 10th Nov, 2003
GREEN BELT land around St Albans which currently has no hope of being granted planning permission is being sold on the internet for as much as £250,000 for a quarter acre plot.
Campaigners angry at plan to build on greenfield sites
TimesOnline, 31/07/03
A MASSIVE London housing plan, annexing 40 miles of the Thames riverbank and stretching into Kent, Essex and Bedfordshire, was announced by John Prescott yesterday.
