Government's housing plan lacks targets, warns CPRE

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has warned the government that its ambition to reach housing needs through sustainable communities will be lost without set density and brownfield regeneration targets.

The government announced its house building plans in south eastern England earlier this week by setting out the proposals for building nearly 300,000 homes in four 'growth areas'.

But Zoë Parks, CPRE's head of campaigns, said: "Housing development across the south east has been at unacceptably low densities.

"That won't change without clear government commitment and leadership to doing better, but to date, the plan offers none." 

CPRE welcomed the emphasis on the Thames Gateway as a major opportunity to meet housing needs, with its 3,000 hectares of brownfield land, while minimising damage to the countryside.

But Nigel Kersey, director of CPRE London, added: "The opportunities for urban regeneration in the Thames Gateway must not be squandered.

"We need clear commitment to avoiding loss of green belt land and to significantly raising the density of development - that means proper targets."