As part of the Government’s Community Plan strategy it has designated four large growth areas for housing and other development in the South East. These threaten to increase housing in the region and to lead directly to the loss of green field sites - see "Communities not Concrete" on the CPRE National website.

The Milton Keynes growth area, which includes parts of the East Midlands and East of England, also threatens the countryside of the West Midlands. An over-supply of new housing, particularly in Northamptonshire, along with increased green field industrial land would directly undermine the goal set out in our Regional Planning Guidance to stop the drift of population away from our Major Urban Areas - see the RPG page.

It would do this, firstly by undermining the seeds of regeneration in those areas, as it became a focus for increased inward investment and housing growth and secondly by increasing the pressure for additional housing in the areas of Warwickshire abutting the Growth Area, where the countryside is already under threat and where green field development should be strongly resisted. people already commute from Warwickshire to Northampton and additional economic activity and development in Northampton can only add to housing pressures on villages and small towns in the east of Warwickshire and work against the RPG goal of getting 76% of new development on previously developed land.

As part of the CPRE team WM CPRE gave evidence at the Public Examination into the Growth Areas in March 2004 to warn of these dangers (link to evidence) and to argue that we should allow time for the seeds of regeneration in our urban areas to grow. Similar evidence from the West Midlands Regional Assembly supported those views.
We are particularly concerned that the Government’s overall approach to regional economic and housing disparities does not focus only on the North and South of the country but takes more account of the impacts of policy on the patchwork of areas in the middle.

We welcomed the statement in the West Midlands Regional Planning Guidance (Para 1.26) that the Growth Area proposals must take into account their impact on the West Midlands as well as the other way round but we will be pressing hard for the Government to put its money where its mouth is and ensure this happens in reality. However the Panel Report from the Examination (link to report on website of the Government Office for the East Midlands) did not reflect this change and (paras 2.15-2.16) still suggested the inter-relation is purely a matter for West Midlands RPG and the subsequent Modifications (link to access them on GOEM website) ignore the impact on other regions altogether. While the Panel did not have the most up to date evidence to hand, we are disappointed that the Government has chosen to ignore its recently published planning strategy for the West Midlands and has failed to acknowledge the seriousness of the inter-regional threat. We will be pressing them to take a more holistic approach in the final report. Comments on the Modifications are required by 23 December 2004.

For our full Written Statement on Matter 1C of the Milton Keynes and South Midlands Sub-regional Spatial Strategy Public Examination...Click Here