Think-tank warning over housing plan
Government plans to build more than one million new homes in south-east England have come under fresh fire following the publication of a new think- tank report.
A commission established by the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) warns that housing building plans outlined by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott could prompt a water shortage in the region.
The think-tank, which has close ties with Downing Street, warns that water rationing would have to be imposed, amid fears that global warming will cause Oxfordshire, Hampshire and parts of Kent to run dry within 20 years.
The report adds that Mr Prescott’s plans to establish new “communities” give “little thought to whether additional transport services and infrastructure would be able to keep pace with the new housing”.
The damning verdict follows the publication of a report by MPs last week, warning that the Government’s plans for new homes would cause “irreversible environmental damage.”
“I accept the need to improve housing supply but, as things stand, the principal beneficiary of housing growth will be property developers, with the environment we all depend on being the principal loser,” said chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee, Peter Ainsworth MP.
Mr Prescott, who announced plans for a major expansion of house building last week, is said to have reacted furiously to the parliamentary report, stressing that the MPs’ findings were published before the Government’s latest initiatives were announced.
“We are working across Government, especially with our colleagues at Defra, to create cleaner, safer and greener communities, while protecting and enhancing the environment,” he said.
Attacking the plans, Conservative local government spokeswoman Caroline Spelman said: “There is now growing evidence that John Prescott’s buildings programme is environmentally unsustainable, leaving a concrete scar across the face of rural England.”
The latest criticism of Labour’s housing proposals come at an embarrassing time for Mr Prescott, who is due to open a three-day “sustainable communities summit” in Manchester, on Monday.
