Planning, building and the environment

Growth Areas

The Growth Areas are one of the measures that the Government has established to tackle housing supply in the wider South East. This section outlines the proposals and progress being made in these four areas.

Growth Areas and New Growth Points are a crucial part of Map showing the Growth Areas of: Ashford,
London-Stansted-Cambridge-Peterborough,
Milton Keynes and South Midlands and
Thames Gateway the Government's ambition to increase levels of housing supply to 240,000 homes a year by 2016.

Announced through the Sustainable Communities Plan in 2003 the four Growth Areas are:

Along with London, the aim is for these areas to sustainably provide 200,000 additional homes above previously planned levels by 2016.

The New Growth Points initiative is designed to provide support to local communities who want to pursue large scale and sustainable growth outside of the Growth Areas, including new housing, through a partnership with Government. 29 New Growth Points were announced in October 2006 with a wide regional spread covering the East and West Midlands, the East, South East and South West of England. If all of the proposed growth is realised New Growth Points would contribute around 100,000 additional dwellings by 2016, an increase of around 32 per cent on previous plans for housing supply in these areas.

Homes for the future: more affordable, more sustainable - The Housing Green Paper , published July 2007, announced that we will be expand the New Growth Points Programme, inviting additional local authorities to bid to become part of the programme during 2008-09, including areas of the North for the first time.

Bidding Guidance for Round Two of the Community Infrastructure Fund was published on 3 April 2008.