The Government has launched a major assault on brownfield-first policies with changes to planning guidance to end residential density standards and to reclassify domestic gardens as greenfield sites.
Decentralisation minister Greg Clark announced a revised version of PPS3 which makes the changes and alters the 11-year old definition of brownfield land.
It also threatens to bring to an end the brownfield-first policies introduced by PPG3 in 1999.
Mr Clark claimed the move reflected the wishes of local people concerned that their neighbourhoods were being swallowed up by a concrete jungle.
He said it would be the start of wholesale planning reforms designed to make councils and communities centre-stage.
The effect of the change to the status of gardens (brought in by the previous Conservative government) is unclear.
Research into the subject showed so-called "garden grabbing" was not widespread and councils that wished to control it already had adequate powers. But it was a convenient route to "headline grabbing" by local MPs.
The change to residential density standards is likely to be more fundamental, however.
"The current system with its push for high density has resulted in developers building one or two bedroom executive flats, when the greatest need is often for affordable family homes," said housing minister Grant Shapps.
"That's why from today communities will be allowed to make their own decisions about what homes are needed in their area, and no longer be victims of a system designed to maximise profits and minimise choice."
The DCLG announcement included "facts on garden grabbing" which it believed would support its case - that the brownfield house building percentage had risen from 56% in 1997 to 80% now and that there has been a decline in four-bedroomed house building and a corresponding rise in two-bedroomed flats.
DCLG also claimed support from the Royal Horticultural Society and Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
RHS director of science and learning said planning measures should go even further than just protecting gardens by guaranteeing high quality gardening opportunities in all new building developments "wherever they are".
"We hope that the new measures will protect the habitats of species that have become synonymous with English gardens and demonstrate a rich eco-system in our own back yards such as frogs, toads and bumble bees," said RSPB project manager Richard Bashford.
