Demand Exceeds Supply

Evening Standard, 7th June 2004
Tony Blair has told MPs that housing is as important as health and education. Mr. Blair told colleagues he is unsentimental about the green belt because he fears that a “whole generation” of young people is in danger of being priced out of buying their own homes unless the South-East sees more house building in the next five years.

Independent.co.uk, 2nd February 2004
The Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, will this week announce “green” development plans to build half a million homes over unspoilt countryside.

The Independent, 17th March 2004-10-05
A government-commissioned review today called for an extra 100,000 new homes to be built each year in a bid to meet rising demand.

The Observer, 21st March 2004
The government is to give the go-ahead for building more than two million houses over the next decade in a desperate attempt to rein in house price inflation which is preventing millions of people buying their own home.

The Telegraph, 9th May 2004
Mr. Blair’s Government has approved 162 different schemes for building in the green belt – land that is meant to be preserved to prevent urban sprawl – according to a parliamentary written answer.

Evening Standard, 26th May 2004
“…MASSIVE housebuilding plans for the green belt in London and the South East were given the go ahead by Tony Blair today …”

Evening Standard, 13th July 2004
John Prescott was today unveiling moves to speed up dramatically the supply of new homes.

The Independent, 22nd January 2004
New homes will use green belt “equal to West Midlands”. Local councils are on course to build houses on an area of Green Belt land bigger than Birmingham.
The Guardian, 6th February 2004
Plans to build 500,000 homes between the Wash and the Thames by 2021 were approved yesterday by the eastern regional assembly. Other local authorities in the South-East to lose green belt land include Bracknell in Berkshire, Sevenoaks in Kent, Three Rivers in Hertfordshire, and Tandridge and Valley in Surrey. In Hillingdon, one of the housing developments that has eaten into the countryside Manor Farm in Ickenham. Lying north of the A40 between Northolt Airport and Hillingdon, it stretches across almost 84 hectares.

Telegraph.co.uk, 22nd February 2004
The South-East will have to absorb 1.44 million. That is the equivalent of about 30 Oxfords or 20 Brightons.

The Telegraph, 22nd February 2004
The South-East has to find space for 200,000 new homes. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister sets targets for the number of homes it wants to see built.

BBC News, 27th April 2004
A blueprint to develop a huge section of east London suggests an extra 31,000 houses could be built to ease the housing shortage. The London part of the Thames gateway is already earmarked for 60,000 new houses. The report says 55 primary schools, six police stations and 19 health centres are for the new population.

ThisIsLondon.co.uk, 18th July 2004
The majority of applications to build on the green belt have been approved by the Government.

BBC News, 2nd February 2004
Town dwellers are pushing up the price of agricultural land.

Sky News, 5th February 2004
Thousands of new homes planned. A 22bn plan to build new homes and improve local communities over a three-year period has been announced.

BBC News, 22nd February 2004
UK Land prices rocket. The price of residential land in the UK has increased a staggering eight-fold over the last 20 years.
The Telegraph, 10th March 2004
700,00 homes could be built on farmland close to London. Nearly 60,000 acres of agricultural land, enough to build up to 700,000 homes.

The Daily Telegraph, 18th March 2004
England needs to build 1.4 million homes more.

Evening Standard, 16th April 2004
The extent of green belt land being lost to developers is revealed today. Two London boroughs, Hillingdon and Sutton, alone have lost 290 hectares in six years – equivalent to more than 900 football pitches.

Independent.co.uk, 19th July 2004
CPRE suggest green belts are dying a “death by a thousand cuts”.