HOUSING PLANS KNOCKED

He has agreed with the House of Lords Science & Technology Committee that the government's house-building plans for the south-east are unsustainable, given the lack of water supplies.

He said: "This report confirms what we have known for a long time - that the government must put the infrastructure in place, before imposing hundreds of thousands of new houses on the south-east.

"We are facing a crisis this summer, with the very real prospect of stand-pipes, which should be unthinkable in one of the world's richest nations. Yet the government seems determined to push ahead and force us to have many thousands more houses, which would be constructed before one single new reservoir could be built.

"It must completely re-think these ill-considered plans and let local councillors decide how many new houses each area can take."