02 May 2003
The government has failed to think through the impact of its plans to build hundreds of thousands of extra homes in the Southeast, according to the Commons committee scrutinising Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's department.
Prescott wants to build 200,000 homes, in addition to the 900,000 already planned for the 1996/2016 period, concentrated in Ashford, Milton Keynes, the Thames Gateway and the London-Stansted-Cambridge corridor.
In a scathing report, Sustainable communities in the south east, published on April 29, the MPs said: 'The impact of such a housing programme on the environment could be unsustainable, [due to] the loss of greenfield sites and excessive pressure on the water supply and other natural resources'.
Providing transport, health, education and necessary services to new neighbourhoods would cost some £20bn in the four growth areas and 'it must be questionable whether the benefits justify such a huge outlay'.
The report argued that local authorities were best placed to manage housing development.
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