GOVERNMENT plans for a massive house building programme could leave picturesque areas around York "covered in concrete", it was claimed today.

Vale of York Tory MP Anne McIntosh sounded the alarm on the back of a study outlined in last week's Budget - which could see more than 1.4 million new homes built in England in a bid to cool prices and meet demand.

Miss McIntosh said the Barker Report called for centralised housing targets, more greenfield and green belt development, and an erosion of local community involvement in the planning process, with key decisions in the hands of "distant" regional politicians.

She believes that could spell concrete misery by removing vital protection against green space development.

She said: "The recommendations in this report will not solve the crisis in affordable housing.

"The Government is adopting a centralist 'dictate and provide' approach in the housing market that will strip local communities of their say, bulldoze green spaces and put many areas around York at risk of being covered in concrete."

She added: "We need more affordable housing, but we should focus on regenerating urban areas and brownfield land, so that the right homes are built in the right places, rather than fuelling unsustainable development."

But the Government today rejected the MP's broadside.

A spokesman for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said proposals for new homes would still go to local councils, with residents remaining part of the consultation process. Regional planning bodies and housing boards may merge, but would act in a strategic planning role.

"Any green belt land that is built on will be replaced like-for-like," the spokesman said.

"Any greenfield development will have to be of an incredibly high necessity and impossible to turn down.

"But this will be a very small amount of applications. They will have to be vital to the needs of the community - if not they won't go ahead.

"There's obviously an issue over house building, but that doesn't mean that we will simply start building left, right and centre in green sites. We don't want to damage the individual nature of towns and villages."

He said the Government's response to the Barker Report was still being discussed.

Updated: 11:01 Tuesday, March 23, 2004