THE regeneration of industrial towns and cities is being held back because of Government pressure to enforce more house building on green field sites, says a major survey published today by the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

It is a report which will worry residents of the Skipton area of the Yorkshire Dales because the local Craven District Council is under intense pressure to build more homes, particularly affordable houses for first time buyers.

The CPRE survey says that developers much prefer to build on greenfield sites because it is cheaper and houses there fetch higher prices.

But this pressure is causing local councils to give planning permission for more greenfield development which, in turn, is harming the prospects for the regeneration of former mill towns like Keighley.

The parts of Craven which lie outside the Yorkshire Dales National Park is particularly vulnerable because there has been no large-scale development within the park for decades, although a search is underway there for small sites for affordable housing.

Commenting on the national survey, Kate Gordon, CPRE’s senior planner, says: "These findings have wide significance. Councils are expected to find land to accommodate the national target of 3 million new homes by 2020.

“Areas that have relied in the past on brownfield sites to meet their housing needs face pressure to allocate greenfield land for development.

“We urge Councils contemplating large-scale greenfield land releases not to proceed unless they are satisfied these will not harm prospects for redevelopment and regeneration. Tremendous potential still exists to make better use of brownfield opportunities and reap the long term rewards in terms of urban renewal.

“As this study shows, for this potential to be realised, great care needs to be taken over the scale, location and timing of greenfield land release.”