JOHN PRESCOTT, the deputy prime minister, is to launch a new housebuilding onslaught with plans for a giant conurbation along Britain’s south coast.

About 140,000 homes would be built in the so-called Solent Gateway between Southampton and Portsmouth over the next 20 years — with more likely to follow.

The controversial proposals are in addition to the four new cities planned at Ashford in Kent, the Thames Gateway in east London, the M11 corridor from London to Cambridge and the Milton Keynes/South Midlands area.

By 2021 about 472,000 homes will have been built in these areas, with a total of about 1.2m homes planned for the southeast as a whole.

There is intense opposition from local people and environmental groups, but even these huge numbers are not enough to meet the demand predicted by Prescott’s civil servants, who believe the region needs a further 1.1m homes.

To fill this gap, up to three more areas similar to Ashford or Thames Gateway are being sought by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). The Solent Gateway is likely to be one.

Details of the Solent scheme emerged after Keith Hill, the housing minister in the last government, gave an interview to Axis, a magazine about urban regeneration.

He said: “We are disappointed that the southeast has set lower housing targets. I am beginning to think not only in terms of the Thames Gateway but also of the Solent Gateway.”

It has emerged that the plans are being drawn up by Richard McCarthy, director of Prescott’s sustainable communities group in the ODPM.

A spokesman for the department confirmed that talks had started with local authorities and that Portsmouth and Southampton councils had expressed strong interest. “We accept the need for extra new housing in the region,” he said. “It is just a question of where. We are just at the discussion stage but we are very positive about this area.”

Barbara Compton, head of housing strategy at Southampton, confirmed the plans. The council has just finished a joint public consultation with other local authorities on proposals to build 80,000 homes in the area by 2026.

Another 50,000 homes would be built under the Solent Gateway plan. Much of the extra growth would be around the towns of Gosport and Fareham as well as on the fringes of Portsmouth and Southampton.

She said: “This plan is driven by the need for economic growth, which is below the national average here.”

Stuart Jarvis, deputy environment director at Hampshire county council, said: “If this goes ahead, much of it will be on greenfield land.”

Environmentalists say Prescott’s “Soviet-style” fondness for centralised planning is outdated and damaging.

Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, said Labour’s economic philosophy was flawed. “These ideas assume economic growth can go on forever and the environment is inexhaustible.”

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