The new northern powerhouse – the home counties and Oxford | Letters
Before anyone leaps with joy at the commercial prospects of the Oxford-Cambridge sprawl belt (Hammond urged to invest 7bn in transport links for new towns, 17 November), they should read Larry Elliott's bleak exposition of the two nations we have become (No wonder the north is angry. Here's a plan to bridge the bitter Brexit divide, 17 November). It's curious how the greenfield sprawl lobby has always been obsessed with the northern home counties and south-east Midlands. Andrew Adonis's enthusiasm for the Oxford-Cambridge axis is only the latest chapter in a saga stretching back to Letchworth Garden City in Edwardian times.
Low-density greenfield development is highly profitable for developers and really good at increasing traffic and greenhouse gas emissions. It's also proved good at dragging wealth out of places that desperately need it to regions which lack the housing to support population growth. Backing economic "winners" just perpetuates an endless spiral of housebuilding, roadbuilding and destruction of our precious farmland. It also exacerbates the dangerous divide between rich and poor regions.
Jon Reeds
Smart Growth UK