Local councils are being “hustled” by central government into allowing greenfield sites being redeveloped for housing rather than brownfield ones.
The warning has come from Dame Helen Ghosh, director general of the Swindon-based National Trust on the second anniversary of the government’s planning reforms. She says she is “very worried” about the pressure being put on local authorities for new housing projects.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s The World this Weekend, she said the National Trust was so concerned about the issue that it is now “making representations” to government ministers.
“We are very concerned that the haste with which local authorities, some of them ill-prepared to do so, have been hustled into producing their local plans,” she protested. “The pressure they’re under to produce the numbers of houses has forced them to designate greenfield sites, and we are very worried about that.
“We are monitoring it and making appropriate representations to government about it.”