3 million new homes receive go ahead.

[daft fan]

The concreting over of rural England has been given the official go ahead as announced in the Queen’s Speech.

The new Homes and Communities Agency is to be created as part of the Housing and Regeneration Bill and will “ensure that three million additional homes are built across England by 2020”.

The agency will have the specific task of ensuring a greater supply of social and affordable private homes. Its other duties will include making better use of surplus public sector land, maximising the potential for brownfield development and supervising investment in wider infrastructure improvements.

What does three million homes look like?
Consider Birmingham which in 2001 had 390,000 households or Liverpool (188,000) Newcastle (111,000) Derby (92,400), York 77,000, Swindon 75,000, Ipswich, 50,000.

Add all those together and the total is still only about one third of what is required by government.

The nearest one can get is London – the biggest sprawling city in the UK, with (2001 figures) 3,015,997 households. A giant metropolis 25 miles east west and the same north south is needed complete with schools, hospitals, shops, roads and rail links. Just where in England is there enough brownfield sites and redundant public sector land to build the equivalent of this new London?

The adverse effect on the local environment; wildlife, biodiversity, pollution and the quality of life doesn’t bear thinking about.