CONTROVERSIAL plans for thousands of new homes in south Canterbury are likely to be scrapped after the new coalition government announced it was abolishing Labour’s previous regional house-building targets.
City council leader John Gilbey said he was delighted by the move, adding that the authority “never wanted to concrete over the countryside”.
Under the previous diktat, Canterbury was required to identify land for 10,200 homes by 2026.

Sites for about 6,200 have already been earmarked on largely brownfield sites, leaving the authority to find land for the remaining 4,000.
Officers said the countryside south of Canterbury provided the only further opportunity for development, which prompted a storm of protest from residents.

But this week Cllr Gilbey said the threat to the area was effectively lifted with the announcement by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles (Con).
He said: “Although it will need some new legislation to ratify, the aim is to give local authorities control of their own housing needs rather than being dictated to from central government, which has to be a good thing."
But the council is still under pressure to scrap the Local Development Framework, which is gathering evidence for future housing strategy in the district.

See this week's Kentish Gazette for full story.