Housing lack sees targets raised

Housing targets have been increased across the region

Long-term housing shortages and affordability issues in the South East have led to higher house-building targets, the government has said.

The changed figures for new homes in the region were published on Thursday in a revised South East Plan.

Consultation on the changes has begun and will run until 24 October, said communities minister Parmjit Dhanda.

Both the regional assembly and eco-campaigners have objected to the changed targets.

A government statement said a "modest" 4% increase in housing provision had been recommended, bringing the total of houses to be built to 33,125 a year.

It said there were more than 200,000 households on council waiting lists in the region and more than 7,500 homeless households in temporary accommodation.

'Short-term squeeze'

The statement said there would be "a co-ordinated approach" to protect the Thames Basin Heaths area, which spans Hampshire, Berkshire and Surrey, and other areas of natural beauty.

It said 80% of the South East was still classified as rural.

The government also said that "beyond the short-term squeeze of the credit crunch" the number of new households was still outgrowing the number of homes being built.

The plan covers Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex, and affects eight million people.

'Unsustainable growth'

But chairman of the South East England Regional Assembly councillor Paul Carter said the government was "determined to show it has the power to over-ride the region's own realistic housing targets".

He said the new targets threatened to destroy the balance between growth, the need for decent infrastructure, and protecting the environment.

And he added: "It is unacceptable to increase housing numbers to a level that threatens to be undeliverable - particularly in the current economic climate."

Hilary Newport, from the Campaign to Protect Rural England in Kent, said the region was already facing "significant environmental constraints".

She said the CPRE believed the increase in housing would be "unsustainable and will put our water resources, our environment and our already pressured infrastructure at risk."

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