The Government has made its first concession to a collapsing house building sector and massive public opposition by finalizing the new South East Plan with a slight reduction in its previously desired 33,200 new homes a year to 32,700.
The final Plan still seeks to build 654,000 new homes in the region by 2026 despite warnings that its water, waste, transport and other infrastructure will not be able to cope.
It says 60% of the new homes should be brownfield and 35% should be affordable; that means the crowded region will have to find room for 261,000 homes on greenfield sites, ensuring local authorities will continue to have to free undeveloped land whether there is a market for brownfield sites or not.
"Despite the current difficulties in the market we need to keep up with the rise in demand and provide more homes," said communities minister Sadiq Khan.
The Plan aims to focus development into "regional hubs" and five strategic development areas covering much of the land from south Hampshire to Milton Keynes via Oxford.
But it makes very little mention of brownfield land apart from the housing target, other than specifying that councils should identify primarily brownfield sites for aggregate recycling plants.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England welcomed the reduction in the housing target and the fact that the Plan no longer refers to "minimum" housing figures. Regional director Edward Dawson said the final target remained ambitious, however, and would have huge implications for the countryside.
"We will work hard to ensure that homes are provided in a way that avoids harming our precious landscapes," he said. "There is scope to achieve significantly more than the Plan's target of at least 60% of development on brownfield land."
