Latest government figures for new homes in Essex show a slight reduction on those suggested earlier this year.

The row over how many new homes are needed in the county - and the south eastern region as a whole - has been going on for some time and has a long history.

According to figures announced this week by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, Essex will now be required to build at the rate of 5,240 homes a year for at least the next five years, although targets will be reviewed every five years.

This is 180 homes a year less than suggested in consultation earlier this year and considerably less than the 7,500 put forward as the ideal by government planning inspectors in the Crow report last year.

But it is still more than SERPLAN, the South Eastern Regional Planning Conference, had called for, which would have added up to 4,194 a year.

For the region overall, Mr Prescott has scaled down his earlier proposals of 43,000 a year to 39,000. This compares with 55,000 a year suggested by Crow, and 33,000 by SERPLAN.

Planning Minister Nick Raynsford said it was intended that the 39,000 homes should occupy no more land than that proposed by SERPLAN for the 33,000. Leader of the Conservative-controlled Essex County Council, Lord Hanningfield, accused the government of planning to concrete over huge swathes of the county'scountryside.

"There is no proven need for these figures and we are totally opposed to them. Building on this scale will mean the permanent destruction of our beautiful countryside. Roads, schools and hospitals cannot cope."

Cllr Ron Williams, the county's cabinet member for planning, said that Essex did not have enough large areas of derelict land to allow 60 per cent of the new homes needed to be built on previously used sites - so-called brownfield - sites.

But Labour county councillors said the announcement was good news. Cllr Paul Sztumpf, chairman of the environmental services select committee, said: "The figure of 5,240 proposed housing provision is less than in our current structure plan and therefore is less than the figure agreed by all political parties at County Hall, including the Tories."

By Kathleen Corby

Reporter's e-mail: kathleen.corby@essex-chronicle.co.uk

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