NEWS: Confusion over how many new houses across the Arc by 2050

Commenting on a December webinar organised by planning consultants Bidwells, a company planning partner said that the Ox-Cam Arc region ‘has been singled out as the location for 1.5 million new homes as well as new road and rail links’.

This article appeared in the online journal ‘pbctoday’ and came as a surprise to all those who were expecting ‘only’ one million new houses across the Arc by 2050 - a number that will increase the ENTIRE housing stock of the affected parts of the counties by between 66% (Bucks/Beds) and 105% (Oxon).

After checking, it turns out that the 1.5 million houses originally reported in ‘pbctoday’ was what we now have to term a ‘misspeak’ - a mistake. The online article has now been corrected and you will no longer find any reference to 1.5 million in it. You can read the original, un-corrected article here. It’s strange that a property developer concentrating on the Arc area should make such a careless mistake, especially as his company’s web page boasts “OXFORD-CAMBRIDGE ARC WE'RE ALL OVER IT”.

The official figure for the aspirational number of new houses across the Arc remains at 1 million. As NEG reports elsewhere on this website that number will have severe consequences not only for the existing communities but also for their environment and the present creaking infrastructure of the county (currently with a funding gap of > £7.1 billion at 2017 prices)?

No community anywhere across the Arc has yet been consulted about how they want to develop in the future. None at all. If you are shocked by this, join the NEG campaign now, by signing up on this website.

NEG continues to campaign against these un-necessary and unsustainable increases. We are not against growth, but we are against growth out of all proportion to both the needs of the existing communities and the ability of our natural environment to support it.