What are Growth Areas?

The provision of new homes has failed to keep pace with the numbers of new households. The Sustainable Communities Plan (published February 2003) was clear that we needed to take radical action. The current housing pressures in London, the South East and other regional hotspots are acute. Ambitious solutions are needed to avoid the urban sprawl of the past.

In July 2002 the Government said that there was potential to provide 200,000 homes, additional to current plans by 2016. Much of this growth would be contained in the four Growth Areas identified in regional planning guidance for London and the rest of the South East Regional Planning Guidance (RPG9) in 2001.

The following Growth Areas were already established: Thames Gateway and the three new Growth Areas of Milton Keynes and South Midlands, London-Stansted-Cambridge-Peterborough and Ashford.