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Stop selling farmland for homes

- 08 March 2000
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8 March 2000



‘Stop selling farmland for homes’


FARMERS should not have an opportunity to sell off land for development under a new housebuilding framework for the south-east, argues a columnist in The Times.

On Tuesday (7 March) Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott approved building plans for 215,000 new houses in the south-east over the next five years, alongside a further 115,000 in Greater London.

Mr Prescott insisted 60% of these would be met through redeveloping recycled land – so-called brownfield sites – and converting empty buildings,

Only for the remaining 40% would greenfield sites be considered.

But columnist Simon Jenkins says Mr Prescott should have “kept it simple” and banned all further encroachment on land which was not built up.

He says if British settlements were inhabited to densities found elsewhere in Europe, greenfield development would not be necessary.

As long as the government is prepared to cede any greenfield sites, “farmers will appeal over and over again for a building permit”, Mr Jenkins claims.

He says agriculture is losing its capacity to protect the countryside, and subsidy must be directed towards that goal.

“But the answer to falling farm incomes is not to offer every farmer a ticket in Mr Prescotts 40% lottery.”

“Ending rural poverty by ending rurality is madness.”

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