House Building In Essex

EDM number 158 in 2005-06, proposed by Simon Burns on 23/05/2005.

That this House expresses its grave concern at the plans to impose massive house building on Essex and Mid Essex as part of the Government's Sustainable Communities Plan; welcomes the Environmental Audit Committee's report on housing entitled Housing: Building a Sustainable Future, which criticises the Government's plans as not adequately considering the environmental impact of the proposed increase in house building; further notes the extensive environmental impact such massive house building would have on the local area; shares the Committee's concern at the lack of an adequate evidence base for the Government's plans, which fail to refer to environmental protection, which do not make adequate efforts towards sustainability, and which are likely to result in a significant increase in the number of local properties flooded; calls on the Government to amend its plans to take into account the environmental impact of such development and to agree to further research as recommended by the Committee; notes that the current proposals will lead to overdevelopment in Mid Essex and other parts of the South East and East and will also create traffic congestion, overcrowding on trains and other public transport and place undue pressure on all local services and public facilities; condemns the Government for pressing ahead with this plan even though the East of England Regional Assembly has withdrawn its support; and calls on the Government not to take forward the current misconceived proposals, which will be harmful to the Chelmsford Local Authority area and Essex.

This motion has been signed by a total of 8 MPs.