A change in land use is proposed in the study Land Economy by the free
market think-tank the Adam Smith Institute.
It says much of the UK's agricultural land, including land currently
labelled as green belt, is not especially green.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said planning was key to ensure
homes, needed for a growing population, were built in a sustainable
way.
Study author Mischa Balen said modern farming techniques turned land
into monocultural wastelands that did not provide proper habitats for
animals.
'950,000 houses'
Mr Balen called for a change in policy where some farms and green belt
would be turned into housing and woodlands.
He said: "If some of these were converted to sympathetic development
consisting of 90% woodland, including small lakes and rivers, and 5%
each for housing and supporting infrastructure, each farm whose use was
changed in this way would yield almost 200,000 square metres (2.15
million sq ft) of new woodland, together with 140 average-sized new
homes."
Mr Balen proposed that 3% of all farmland be converted using this
system, which would create 950,000 new houses and 130,000 hectares of
woodland, which equated to about an 11% increase in the woodland cover
of England and Wales.
The fields so barren of insect, bird and animal life, would be replaced
by woods rich in biodiversity
He said: "None of these new homes would be overlooked by existing
houses. Rather, they would be nestled in among new woodland.
"Current homeowners would not face a view altered by new buildings.
"On the contrary, they would see the ugly monoculture fields replaced
by natural woods, carefully planted to provide a mixture of different
types of trees and undergrowth."
"The fields so barren of insect, bird and animal life, would be
replaced by woods rich in biodiversity and providing a habitat for
birds and small mammals."
The institute said the proposals were in keeping with Conservative
Party leader David Cameron's recent remarks ahead of changes to
planning policy.
'Pastoral landscape'
Mr Balen said current laws led to restrictive planning rules which
stifled rural economic growth.
The report said it was crucial to protect the environment and make sure
people could afford houses, and this proposal would achieve both.
National Farmers' Union spokesman Anthony Gibson said: "The English
countryside is essentially a pastoral landscape, that's what makes it
special.
"I think we ignore the qualities that have given the English landscape
the fame and the resonance that it has at our peril...
"I'm not sure that very many people would very much enjoy the prospect
of seeing vast swaths of the countryside covered in a mixture of
concrete and forestry."
'950,000 houses'
Mischa Balen, report author
He said: "None of these new homes would be overlooked by existing
houses. Rather, they would be nestled in among new woodland.
"Current homeowners would not face a view altered by new buildings.
"On the contrary, they would see the ugly monoculture fields replaced
by natural woods, carefully planted to provide a mixture of different
types of trees and undergrowth."
"The fields so barren of insect, bird and animal life, would be
replaced by woods rich in biodiversity and providing a habitat for
birds and small mammals."
A spokesman for ODPM said: "The government believes we need more new
homes for an ageing and growing population. But we also need to make
sure that we build these homes in a sustainable way.
"That is why the planning system is so important.
"It is because of the changes we have already made to the planning
system that over 70% of new housing developments have been built on
brownfield land."
The institute said the proposals were in keeping with Conservative
Party leader David Cameron's recent remarks ahead of changes to
planning policy.
'Pastoral landscape'
Mr Balen said current laws led to restrictive planning rules which
stifled rural economic growth.
The report said it was crucial to protect the environment and make sure
people could afford houses, and this proposal would achieve both.
National Farmers' Union spokesman Anthony Gibson said: "The English
countryside is essentially a pastoral landscape, that's what makes it
special.
"I think we ignore the qualities that have given the English landscape
the fame and the resonance that it has at our peril...
"I'm not sure that very many people would very much enjoy the prospect
of seeing vast swaths of the countryside covered in a mixture of
concrete and forestry."
The BRITISH National Party is the only true 'Green Party' in Britain
because only the BNP have the resolve to end mass immigration into
Britain and thereby remove at a stroke the need for the 4 million homes
in the green belts of the South East and elsewhere that are currently
required to house the influx of 5 million immigrants expected to enter
the country under present trends over the next twenty years.
...a home for convicted racists and other, often violent, criminals:
http://www.stopthebnp.org.uk/uncovered/pg07.htm
--
Andy Mabbett
Say "NO!" to compulsory ID Cards: <http://www.no2id.net/>
Free Our Data: <http://www.freeourdata.org.uk>
"Mischa Balen" !! Oy ruddy vey!! Is he one of Blair's millionaire
property
speculators? He certainly sounds like it. His kind care nothing for
flowers,
birds and bees, neither do any of these disgusting speculators who
care only
for the money they can make after paving over every blade of grass
they can.
>
> '950,000 houses'
>
> Mr Balen called for a change in policy where some farms and green belt
> would be turned into housing and woodlands.
>
> He said: "If some of these were converted to sympathetic development
> consisting of 90% woodland, including small lakes and rivers, and 5%
> each for housing and supporting infrastructure, each farm whose use was
> changed in this way would yield almost 200,000 square metres (2.15
> million sq ft) of new woodland, together with 140 average-sized new
> homes."
>
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. The jew has spoken.
snip rest of his drivel. Are there no lengths they will go to in
order to enrich themselves even further at the expense of the wildlife
and the natural beauty of the English
countryside and those who choose to live there.
> >The BRITISH National Party is
> ...a home for convicted racists and other, often violent, criminals:
So is the Labour Party
Interesting comment made by someone who should perhaps realise that before
our ancestors started farming Britain was essentially forest!
Keef
<landno...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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