NEW figures have today laid bare the dramatic increase in the number of gardens grabbed for development in the last 12 years.
Nationally, the percentage of new homes built on previously residential land – which includes back gardens – increased to 25 per cent, up 14 per cent. The figures have risen dramatically from 1997 when only one in ten homes was built on similar land.
But the figures in York are even worse with 30 per cent of homes now built on formerly residential land. In Ryedale it is 33 per cent, in Selby the figure is 20 per cent and in the East Riding it’s 25 per cent.
In Scarborough, the figure is 37 per cent but Harrogate is the worst offender with 41 per cent of new homes built on previously residential land.
The figures may soon decrease, though, as in June the Government gave councils new powers to prevent unwanted garden grabbing by taking gardens out of the brownfield category that includes derelict factories and disused railway sidings.
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