news story

22nd July 2008

MP Condemns housing Number 'Fantasy Figures'

Lib Dem MP Steve Webb has condemned Government plans for further increases in the number of houses to be built in South Gloucestershire over the next 20 years.

Members of the South West regional assembly had originally proposed that South Gloucestershire could accommodate around 23,000 extra houses between 2006 and 2026, but an 'independent panel' had recommended a higher figure of 30,800.

Far from reducing that figure, the Government has today brought forward plans to require South Gloucestershire to accommodate 32,800 extra houses over the period, more than 40% up on the original figure that councillors believed was feasible.

The only encouraging feature of the revised document is that the figure for Yate and Chipping Sodbury has been reduced from 5,000 in the panel report to 3,000, but this is still substantially more than local people believe is acceptable.

Commenting, Steve Webb said:

"The original plans for 23,000 houses in South Gloucestershire would have been challenging, and the panel's plans for 30,000 were totally unacceptable. To further increase the target to nearly 33,000 is simply madness.

"The Government don't seem to have noticed what is happening in the housing market.

" These are simply fantasy figures and bear no relation to what is needed or what is possible. We need to ensure a massive public response over the next 3 months to get these ridiculous targets reduced dramatically".