1.  The Countryside Agency welcomes the opportunity to submit views to the Committee, as a follow up to our memorandum for the Committee's inquiry on the Urban White Paper.

  2.  Our earlier submission made it clear that there is a strong interdependence between town and country. Regeneration policies for urban areas have an effect on rural areas. Some rural regeneration programmes include small market towns, which display similar problems to larger urban centres. The main focus of our concern about the European Commission's ruling on GAP funding for urban regeneration is, therefore, its implications for the countryside and for those rural areas in need of regeneration. We are particularly anxious about the role of GAP funding in helping to achieve a balance of development between town and country.

  3.  We have welcomed the Government's commitment to make better use of brownfield sites (which also exist in some rural areas) to accommodate 60 per cent of predicted household growth. Planning authorities already have the tools to make this happen. However, often the missing ingredient is the investment necessary to make these sites as attractive to developers as the greenfield sites on the edge of town. GAP funding has been a way of encouraging private sector involvement. Without this, brownfield site targets may not be met leading to increased building on greenfield sites—to the detriment of the countryside. An alternative scheme is essential and would need a fundamental change in the Government's approach. It would appear to require some significant fiscal incentive—perhaps based on derelict and vacant land tax (based on the development envisaged in the approved local plan)—to increase the incentives for landowners not to hold on to urban sites in the hope of much bigger gains in the future, while imposing a poor environment on their neighbours.

  4.  A new regeneration framework should apply not only to cities, but also to small and medium sized towns, such as those in rural coalfield areas and coastal resorts, where the decline can be as severe as in inner cities. Revitalisation of these smaller towns benefits their rural hinterlands. A new framework would provide a way of integrating Government policy towards urban and rural areas.

Countryside Agency

June 2000