The ruralness of our two shires is under threat from government proposals to build on green field sites, according to the Campaign to Protect Rural England. With the bitter row continuing in the South East, the government is now looking to intensify its housebuilding project in the Midlands. The CPRE is worried that a huge increase in the number of new homes being built in the countryside would upset many of the urban regeneration projects, such as the ones in Birmingham, encouraging more people to move away on to Green Belt land. The latest government predictions indicate that in the next 25 years, they'll need around 50 percent more land than originally thought - with the figures more than doubling in certain areas.
The Herefordshire Council, though, has fought back, telling the Regional Assembly that these figures are unworkable without causing great damage to the countryside and market towns. However, in Worcestershire, the council is already considering plans to expand Worcester and Redditch into the countryside. Areas under threat include Burton-on-Trent, Hereford, Rugby, Shrewsbury, Telford and Worcester - and the CPRE is warning that some of these towns and cities might even double in size over the next 20 years. The overall development in the West Midlands could take up an extra 40 square miles of land over the next 25 years, most of it greenfield. They are worried that this will lead to more unaffordable houses in rural areas, and undermine some of the efforts to make areas like East Birmingham, the Black Country and North Staffordshire more desirable places in which to live. They say this could lead to worsening quality of life, loss of countryside, increased traffic congestion, longer journeys to work and more pressure on natural resources. | 
