Ministers unveil £200million fund to protect the countryside from building
This article tells us the Treasury will pay £200million towards the cost of getting the “brownfield” sites ready for new homes, ministers said. Brandon Lewis, the new Planning and Housing minister, said the cash would ensure that greenfield areas across England are protected from builders, because it would mean that developers’ resources were more focused on meeting a share of housing need in towns and cities.
Under the scheme, councils will be given the chance to bid to set up 10 new housing zones in urban areas across the country. As part of the deal, the local authorities will have to commit to building between 750 and 2,000 new homes. Shaun Spiers, chief executive of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: “This is great start to getting back to a proper ‘brownfield first’ agenda which is good for our towns and for countryside.
The CPRE is running a Waste of Space of campaign which has identified revealing a huge number of derelict sites across the country.” However no-one wants to live in brownfield sites in towns and cities – lets hope this inconvenient truth doesn’t upset the brilliant logic of those planning and taking this policy forward because theoretically on paper, just like help to buy, it seems a wonderful idea.