Chairman says housebuilders want planning reform to enable them to grab more greenfield sites
The chairman of the National Trust has accused housebuilders of conning business leaders who signed a letter backing planning reform
Simon Jenkins attacked housebuilders in a strongly worded column in The Times today.
He said claims that England鈥檚 planning system put a break on UK business was 鈥渟elf-serving rubbish.鈥�
鈥淭hey [the signatories] have been conned by a group of housing developers eager to grab some attractive greenfield sites for their portfolios,鈥� he said.
Jenkins said there was no evidence that a shortage of rural land was hilding back the economy. He said commercial land vacancy of 14% and landbanks of 330,000 homes meant there was a surplus of development land.
He said building was being held back by low demand rather than lack of land.
Jenkins warned that England would look like parts of Jersey, Portugal and Ireland if current planning laws were swept away. He said there would be 鈥渂ungalows and buildings spattered in every field, advertising hoardins, pylons and wind turbines along main roads, mini-malls outside towns, and boarded up town centres.鈥�
1 Readers' comment