Gardens for sale are Brownfield Sites claims Prescott
Gardens have been officially classified as "brownfield sites" ripe for redevelopment under planning guidance issued by John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister.
The advice deems gardens as "previously developed land", giving developers the green light to concrete over gardens for sale.
It allows builders to buy older houses with mature gardens for sale and replace them with blocks of flats, a pattern which, if repeated over time, can completely change a neighbourhood's character.
The Tories last night went on the attack against the move, saying Mr Prescott was "fiddling" planning guidelines in order to achieve the Government's target of 60 per cent of development occurring on brownfield sites.
They also accused the Government of spending £1.8million commissioning academic studies on achieving ever-higher density development to suburban Britain, including "ripping up" gardens for sale.
The Conservative campaign was sparked after researchers discovered previously unheralded planning guidance issued by Mr Prescott four years ago, which aimed to "maximise the re-use of previously developed land".
The guidance states: "Previously developed land is that which is or was occupied by a permanent structure (excluding agricultural or forestry buildings) and associated fixed surface infrastructure.
"The definition covers the curtilage of the development ... The curtilage is defined as the area of land attached to a building. All of the land within the curtilage of the site will also be defined as previously developed land."
Local authorities are told to avoid developments which "make inefficient use of land for sale " while encouraging those of between 30 and 50 dwellings per hectare.
Caroline Spelman, the shadow local and devolved affairs secretary, said: "Labour claim that they want to regenerate brownfield sites, yet their definitions of 'previously developed land' includes leafy back gardens for sale."
Mr Prescott's department is among a range of bodies supporting a publicly-funded study costing £1.8million by Professor Marcial Echenique of Cambridge University's Martin Centre for Urban Studies on how to encourage substantial land development.
He has stated: "They made very large gardens for sale in the 1930s and it is possible to sub-divide the plots with alleys and paths and to introduce denser development."
The guidance suggests that owners of suburban properties, particularly those with larger gardens for sale, could find that their homes are worth much more than they believed.
A spokesman for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said: "This guidance is about using land efficiently and is aimed at substantial new building not back gardens for sale. "
Source: The Telegraph, 23.05.2004
