Builders keen on move to the country

BRITAIN'S unique green belt areas are under threat again as housebuilders enjoy their biggest bonanza since 1945. There is a shortage of plots as people rush to buy homes, preferably on greenfield sites.

Wednesday's move by George Wimpey to take over the housing arm of John Laing in a £297m deal will boost Wimpey's land bank and make it Britain's biggest housebuilder, leapfrogging Persimmon.

Britain's builders would like to encroach on the green belts that have existed outside major towns and cities for more than 60 years. None of them will say so publicly, however, because of the hostility such a move would arouse. Instead, it has been left to two leading academics to call for erosion of the green belts to allow more homes to be built.

They say their research shows that the amount of brownfield land, such as old factories, waste sites and railway sidings, being reused for housing has not increased much since the 1980s.

Aberdeen University land economy professor David Adams and senior lecturer Craig Watkins call in their book Greenfields, Brownfields Housing Development for radical changes in planning laws. They say: 'Green belt boundaries need to be adjustable rather than permanently fixed in order to respond to dynamic change in the local economy.'

They criticise brownfield site development on the grounds of cost and unacceptable cramming as council cutbacks lead to a shortage of planning experts. Market led central governments have concentrated on decision-making speed rather than quality, they say.

Local authorities are constantly criticised by builders over the time it takes to reach planning decisions. Central government has attempted to speed up the process by setting informal time limits - often at the expense of design and with a risk of overcrowding.

Surveys show that people still prefer housing on greenfield sites. They like the lifestyle that goes with living 'in the country' even though they may only be on the edge of a city or town'.

Adams and Watkins want Government and local authorities to re-educate homeowners who want to live in the country by making sure that 'market conditions must be created within which consumers and housebuilders will regard brownfield sites as their destination of first choice'.

They say they want to see Government play a more active role in housing development by providing schools, efficient transport connections and attractive local environments rather than large-scale public-sector housing.

Greenfields, Brownfields Housing Development by David Adams and Craig Watkins, Blackwell, £25.