HBF blasts Rogers' report

Roger Humber, chief executive of the House Builders Federation, has blasted Lord Rogers' urban task force report Towards an urban renaissance as "seriously flawed."

Humber said: "Where Rogers is unconvincing is over the way urban developments can save greenfield sites. His analysis is seriously flawed and could seriously damage policy developments."

The HBF chief accused Rogers of making "heroic assumptions" in saying that an extra 1.5 million housing plots will become available by 2016 as a result of town cramming and building on windfall sites. Windfall sites are where land that has become available because the firm owning the land has either ceased trading, moved to another location, or the site has become surplus to requirements.

Humber said Rogers' analysis assumed that windfall sites would materialise to meet demand but pointed out, "at what point these become available," is not stated.

HBF research, using the National Land Use Database, had shown that brownfield sites will only give "one million plots not the two million that Rogers says will be available."

Humber added: "We know that in some areas, local authorities are not keen to give up windfall industrial land because they think that industry will come back in." HBF reckons that upwards of 30,000 hectares are being held back for this reason.

The house builders chief criticised the report trying to link the need for building on previously used land and the green belt. "Regenerating areas like the East Midlands is not connected with building on a greenfield site in East Sussex."

Humber called on Government to establish a better database indicating where sites will become available.