During 2003, the Treasury and the ODPM commissioned the Bank of England economist, Kate Barker, to look into the issues of housing supply and factors constraining it. The Government's acceptance of the recommendations in Kate Barker's final report (the interim report came out in December) that came out just before the Budget in March, recommended that an extra 120,000 new houses be built above the existing output. CPRE's first reaction was as follows:

• Would do nothing to actually reduce house prices
  
  
• Would not on its own make housing more affordable for the people who are least able to buy or rent private sector houses
  
  
• Would result in unacceptable environmental impacts. It would place over 8,000 hectares, or more than 30 square miles, of countryside at risk over 5 five years, the equivalent of building a city larger than Manchester on greenfield land
  
  
• Would impose huge infrastructure costs on the public purse while fuelling regional economic disparities

To read more about the CPRE view on Kate Barker's Review of Housing Supply, there are two publications:

• A Basis on Which to Build? – A Report by European Economics for CPRE
  
  
• A Commentary on the interim report of Kate Barker's Review by CPRE

Watch this space!

May 2004