An all-party committee of MPs has admitted Government house building targets cannot be met but said they should be retained anyway as they reflect need and demand.
The Commons Communities and Local Government Committee report on Housing and the Credit Crunch notes ruefully that progress towards three million new homes in England will not be met in the short term but suggests the policy should remain the same anyway.
The MPs ignored a string of witnesses who pointed out that retaining the pre-recession targets would simply push most house building on to greenfield sites.
The Home Builders Federation warned that falling house prices have a magnified effect on land values and for complex brownfield sites, falling sales prices have effectively pushed land prices below zero.
It said most owners of urban brownfield land would therefore be reluctant to sell.
The Local Government Association urged assistance for the remediation costs of brownfield sites and the Campaign to Protect Rural England said a sequential, brownfield first approach had actually sent a clear message to developers and encouraged development.
All this was completely ignored by the Committee which pressed for a business as usual approach.
It restricted coverage of regeneration to a call for continuing support of Government work on critical regeneration schemes and promised a further look at this later this year.
CPRE said the MPs were wrong to back the fantasy housing targets, although it welcomed support for refurbishing social homes.
"No-one in the industry seriously believes the national target of three million homes by 2020 can be met," said senior planner Kate Gordon.
"Pursuing this target will lead to greenfield land being allocated needlessly for development - developers have been trying to reduce the size of their landbanks, not increase them."
The Committee did, however, receive evidence in support of greenfield development from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors which urged "greater levels of well managed development on greenfield sites".
