The removal of people's employment rights etc affects this generation only, but the proposed bonfire of planning regulations will affect our "green and pleasant land" for generations.
Of course, people have to live somewhere and there is a crhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifying need for more and affordable housing, but this does not justify the invasion of green-field sites which, once despoiled by urban sprawl, will take several hundred years, if ever, to recover. As Simon Jenkins pointed out in his excellent article in the Guardian last week:
"There is no "need" to build on green-field sites anywhere in Britain. There is merely a "demand" from those wishing to profit from it. There is now probably more development land left over from manufacture and lying unused in England than ever in history. It is mostly serviced, with infrastructure, housing, schools and a working population to hand. By definition it is more sustainable than virgin countryside. It is there that planning should direct development...For the unprotected countryside to become the latest victim of the credit crunch is tragic..."
And the minister responsible is our own Vince Cable. He should think again, or the desecration of the land will be the longest lasting legacy of this coalition government.
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