Trudi Davies The Politics Show South East

Chris Eubank's garden development sparked furore

Garden grabbing is the newest way to make money from your property.

This is a practice whereby builders can exploit planning loopholes to pull down family homes, so that they can replace them with flats, and it's rife in the South East.

It would appear to be a win-win situation, the builders make money on multiple occupancy housing, the council keep up the numbers of new build properties without encroaching on the green belt and the home owner pockets a tidy sum for the sale of the land.

Homes built on site of existing houses, 2004 Tandridge 68% Tunbridge Wells 47% Wealden 44% Rother 39% Crawley 48%

Local opposition

In 2004 (the most recent available figures) the national average of new homes built on the site of old ones was 15% but in our region the figures are much higher, ranging from 40% to nearly 70%.

Some figures suggest that one in four new houses in the South East is on a 'garden grab' development.

In Brighton, Chris Eubank's former homes are in the process of being demolished to make way for flats and, not surprisingly, not everyone is happy about it.

Why has this suddenly become an issue? Well, apart from the pressure for new homes in the South East; the practice exploits a legal loophole defining gardens as brownfield sites which means that they are classified (in planning terms) in the same category as disused gas works and industrial sites.

Developers are offering home owners - especially those with large gardens - inflated prices for their properties with the intention of building flats on the land and turning a large profit.

Neighbours usually object but the local authorities are reluctant to turn down planning applications partly because they regularly lose on appeal and partly because there is a presumption that the Government prioritises brownfield development.

Private members Bill

Enter Greg Clarke, MP for Tunbridge Wells and his Private Members Bill - The Protection of Private Gardens.

Essentially Mr Clarke wants gardens removed from the definition of brownfield sites and the power of decision making returned to the local authority.

With the support of David Cameron and at least 40 Labour MPs, the Bill has its second reading in the house.

The programme comes live from the back garden of a house whose owners say they are affected by garden grabbing.

Greg Clarke and a number of interested parties will be joining us to discuss how the second reading went and whether it is a serious issue or just another case of nimbyism.

Profit or preservation? Should homeowners be allowed to turn their plots into flats?Text us on 07786 209252 or email us at [email protected] or via the link below and we'll put your points to our live guests.

Looking to the future

The Simon Langton School in Canterbury has won the National Youth Parliament Competition organised by the Citizenship Foundation.

Their task was to recreate the parliamentary chamber, take on the roles of Government, Opposition and backbench MPs and make a 20 minute video of their debate of a mock bill.

This week the winners attended the real House to collect their prize and meet the politicians and peers followed by tea at Number 10.

Sam Dobin is checking out the accommodation as he also won Best Prime Minister.

However, he says that he will cast his first vote not for Tony Blair but for the Conservatives just as long as "David Cameron doesn't get any fluffier." Meanwhile, in Michael Howard's constituency, they are in the process of selecting a new candidate.

We ask the winner onto the programme and ask Sam what he makes of the new Folkestone candidate and what he thinks the Tories need to do to return the South East to its true blue origins.

Fluffy or caring? What do you make of the new Conservative image?Text us on 07786 209252 or email us at [email protected] or via the link below.

Paper review and comments

Claire Truscott from the Brighton Argus reviews the week's papers and Paul Siegert will be reading out your views on our topics.

Thank you

This is our last show of the series as Parliament goes off for its summer break.

We would like to thank you for joining us on the first run of the South East's Politics Show and we hope that you have enjoyed our coverage of the region.

Paul Siegert

We want the stories that we cover to reflect the things that concern you and your area.

We are back on air on 17 September 2006 so if you have anything that you think we should be looking in to please get in touch via any of the links below.

In the mean time The Politics Show team would like to wish you a very happy summer!

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The Politics Show South East

The Politics Show returns on Sunday 17 September 2006 at 12.00pm on BBC One.

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