But his plans have been criticised by rural groups and green campaigners as a blueprint for ‘disfiguring’ the countryside that would damage the fabric of Britain.
However, Cameron said that the government would protect green belt land and national parks. ‘We urgently need to find places where we are prepared to allow significant new growth to happen,’ he said in a speech at the Institute of Civil Engineering in London.
‘The growth of our towns and cities has been held back by a planning system which has encouraged development of the wrong sort in the wrong places,’ he pointed out.
He said places such as Hampstead Garden Suburb, Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City were ‘not perfect but popular’ and the coalition would seek to build more towns that were ‘green, planned, secure, with gardens, places to play and characterful houses, not just car dominated concrete grids’.
A consultation process will be launched later this year on how to apply the principles of garden cities to areas with high potential growth, in places people want to live.
‘We must get our planning system fit for purpose. It needs to be quick. It needs to be easier to use. And it needs to better support growth, jobs and homes,’ Cameron added.
He also revealed that he supports the idea of a new international airport to the east of London as the government needs to be ‘bold’ about air transport. ‘We need to retain our status as a key global hub for air travel, not just a feeder route to bigger airports elsewhere, in Frankfurt, Amsterdam or Dubai,’ the Prime Minister said.
He has ruled out a third runway at Heathrow but Mr Cameron made warm noises about building a new international hub airport East of London. ‘Yes, this will be controversial. We will be bringing forward options in our aviation strategy which will include an examination of the pros and cons of a new airport in the Thames estuary,’ he confirmed.
Neil Sinden, director of policy for the Campaign to Protect Rural England, attacked the plans for building in the countryside. ‘If the government’s planning reforms remain unchanged from the draft published last year, pressure for sprawling development is precisely what we can expect. Unless the final planning framework recognises the intrinsic value of our countryside as a whole, we fear a rash of sporadic and inappropriate development across the country, disfiguring the rural landscape which is so valued by local communities,’ he said.
