No infrastructure, no homes says our Council Leader

A government minister has again refused to guarantee that cash will be found to build roads, schools and hospitals to support thousands of homes set to be built in the region.

Council leaders are growing increasingly frustrated at the government's refusal to pledge money for infrastructure projects, and for the second time in as many weeks Jonathan Shaw, the minister for the south east, has resisted their demands to guarantee more money will be found.

He has been criticised for trying to get out of a promise to fund vital public services for the 80,000 homes planned for south Hampshire over the next two decades.

Mr Shaw was again asked recently to reassure people that the government would cough up an estimated £4bn for infrastructure when he appeared at a meeting of the South East England Development Agency. But he refused to make any such promises.

Now senior council leaders are saying 'no infrastructure, no homes'.

Fareham Borough Council's Executive Leader and Chairman of the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire, Conservative Councillor Seán Woodward, who quizzed Mr Shaw at the meeting, said: 'We need a firm commitment from government that they will deliver the infrastructure and we have not had that. To build homes without that cannot be done. It is unthinkable.'

Councillor Woodward wasnoutraged after Hazel Blears, minister in charge of communities and local government, suggested changes to the South East Plan a blueprint for the region for the next 18 years which meant that providing infrastructure was no longer a condition of development.

Mr Shaw tried to soothe the fears by stressing the government had invested in infrastructure such as the Hindhead tunnel and would keep doing so. But he would not confirm the infrastructure needed would be provided.

Cllr Woodward regularly calls for investment in public services to accompany any major building project and said: 'There is still a long way to go before we can think about accommodating thousands of extra homes in South Hampshire.'