Having just read Gordon Isgrove's argument in your Homes supplement arguing for more building on greenfield sites, I feel the need to ask if Gordon was scared by a tree when young.
The same arguments seem to be put forward every week by builders in the pages of Building. Do we not realise that it is thinking like this that alienates us from society, puts young people off joining the profession and allows the wholesale destruction of the environment around us?

I know full well that there are housing problems in this country; I also know that it is less economic to build on brownfield sites. However, the solution cannot be to continue to increase building on greenfield. The value of nature has to be respected by the human race at some point or there will be no nature left. I'm getting tired of David Attenborough telling me that half of the species in the world are about to become extinct if we carry on as we are.

But the situation is that business overrides these concerns and we are going to continue down this road until we have nothing left.

Where will we build houses in 100 years' time when there are no greenfield sites left in the South-east? If that day is going to come sometime why don't we look for the alternative solution now? That way we will have houses now and countryside in the future.

Alternatively we could just build in the bit of greenfield located in Mr Isgrove's back garden.

Postscript

Andrew Bird, naive young quantity surveyor, via email