Devon CPRE responds to PM's vow not to 'concrete over the countryside' for housing

Devon CPRE, the local branch of the countryside charity, has campaigned for many years for the right type and number of new homes to be built in the right places at prices local people can afford.

Responding to new housebuilding plans announced by PM Rishi Sunak and Housing Secretary Michael Gove, Devon CPRE Director Penny Mills said: “While it’s heartening to hear Mr Sunak promise not to continue to ‘concrete over the countryside’ and that Mr Gove wants to make it easier to convert empty city centre premises into flats and houses, let’s not forget that a General Election is looming!

Our charity has long campaigned for the majority of new homes to be built on brownfield sites in urban areas and not on greenfield sites in open countryside. We have also consistently questioned the Government’s notional target of delivering 300,00 new homes a year. 

Five years ago, Devon CPRE commissioned an independent report into local housing needs. It showed that the Government’s annual housebuilding target far exceeded what was actually needed in this part of the county. Four years ago, we invited the then housing minister to attend our seminar in Exeter to discuss the findings of the report. No one listened, and the Government carried on allowing developers to build the wrong type of houses in the wrong places, more often than not without local support. 

With a General Election on the horizon, Rishi Sunak and Michael Gove have apparently seen the light! We believe actions speak louder than words. There have been decades of inaction as a merry-go-round of housing ministers has failed to deliver a sustainable long-term housing strategy. Let’s hope that this time around, they deliver on their promises.”