THE 1,100 out-of-town shopping centres built over the past decade should become the core of the new towns that will be needed to accommodate a growth in households, builders told the Government yesterday.
The House Builders' Federation has suggested shopping centres among a series of proposed locations for some of the 4.4 million homes that will be needed over the next 20 years.
It proposes that most of these should be built on the edge of existing towns, or close to them, and without "covering the countryside in concrete".
The federation says that shopping centres, often criticised for generating traffic, have the new roads and amenities which could support the development of schools and houses without greatly increasing the need to use the car.
More controversial, perhaps, is the federation's call for a review of the inner boundaries of the protective green belts, which it says are drawn much too tightly around major towns and cities. The federation says the effect of green belts, which have been in place for almost 50 years, is to create "unsustainable" development beyond the green belt and in genuine countryside.
A review of inner green belt boundaries, compensated for by extending the outer boundaries, it says, is long overdue and would help conserve historic cities such as Chester.
Further suggestions in the report, New homes - because Britain deserves better, include increasing the number of homes allowed on old hospital sites - currently limited by Government policy - and reviving 50-year-old powers to amass land for new towns.
Roger Humber, director of the federation, said: "These proposals would get less dense, better-quality development than we are seeing now where every scrap of land is over-developed. We want people to realise that we are as much victims of bad planning as they are."
