Letter from Barbara Follet MP to the West Stevenage Inquiry

April 2004

Our ref:ck-wilson

(Please quote in all correspondence)

Please reply to the House of Commons

Dear Ms Wilson,

Thank you for telephoning my parliamentary office to ask for for a brief outline of what I plan to say during my appearance at the West of Stevenage Planning Inquiry on Thursday 29 th April. The summary is below.

I am in favour of the proposed development to the west of the A1M in Stevenage. There are 2,000 people on the housing waiting list in Stevenage and another 2,000 on the transfer list. Every day my postbag is filled with letters from constituents desperate for homes. Population projections indicate that, given the shortage of brownfield land in Hertfordshire on which to build more homes, this can only get worse. Stevenage alone needs to find between 6,000 and 8,000 additional dwellings by 2021. Obviously, new land needs to be found and released.

There is no more sustainable greenfield site in the County than that to west of Stevenage. The proposals before the Inquiry would provide much needed housing for Hertfordshire; prevent the loss of less suitable greenfield sites elsewhere in the County and , at the same time, would protect our historic towns and villages from the effects of "town cramming".

The need for a step change in housing provision is recognised in the recent Barker Report and required by the Sustainable Communities Plan. Stevenage and North Hertfordshire are in the London-Stansted-Cambridge-Peterborough Growth Corridor and Stevenage West is at a considerably more advanced stage in the implementation process than the vast majority of sites in the region. It is, therefore, in a position to contribute quickly to that step change and provide some of the homes that Hertfordshire so desperately needs.

Yours sincerely,

Barbara Follett MP