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House building programme 'is damaging environment'

Posted: 29/05/2008

The South East's strong economy and house building programme may have a high environmental price, a report from the South East Regional Assembly warns. It says just 11 out of 41 targets have been met in the region when it tracked performance on housing, transport, economic and environmental targets.

Good news included an average of 30,600 homes a year built over the five years from 2003, 82% of last year's new homes were built on previously used land and each person contributed £21,500 to the economy last year, 15% more than the UK average of £18,600.

But the assembly said it is concerned that the successes could be placing extra strain on infrastructure and impacting on the environment.

Its report said there is worsening air quality, increasing length of car journeys, falling bird populations and increases in waste.

Assembly chairman Keith Mitchell said: "The monitoring report is a 'health barometer' and shows where we are doing well, where we need to improve and our limits.

"We have a strong economy but also worrying signs of deterioration of our environment. It is our responsibility to maintain and improve our residents' quality of life to make sure it is not comprised by unsustainable growth.

"This report shows we need to do more to balance the environmental impact of economic growth."

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