Date: 03-12-2006 - Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Britain 'being stifled' by nimby rules

BRITAIN is being held back by "nimby" attitudes that prevent the construction of houses, shopping centres, offices and factories, a report commissioned by Gordon Brown will say this week.

The Barker review of land use planning, chaired by Kate Barker, a member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, has found Britain has twice the amount of "protected" land as other industrial countries, despite having one of the highest densities of population.

While stressing that the report would not recommend "concreting over the green belt", sources say it will urge ministers to re-examine whether too much land is protected from development, and to push local authorities into allowing more projects through.

A previous report by Barker for the Treasury said that between 70,000 and 120,000 more houses should be built each year than at present.

She received evidence that a quarter of major planning applications were rejected by local authorities, up from 13% in the late 1990s. Ikea, the Swedish retailer, had plans to build 20 new stores in Britain but has been struggling to obtain planning permission.

Only 8.3% of the land area of England is designated as urban, while 12.9% is green belt, 7.6% national parks, 15.6% areas of outstanding natural beauty, 6.2% special areas of conservation, 4.7% special protection areas and 8.2% sites of special scientific interest.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England says that any shake-up of the planning regime could have "major implications for the rate at which our countryside is lost to new development".

The Barker review's findings could conflict with Brown's determination to present himself as "green" in his pre-budget report on Wednesday.

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