Planning Blight?

Disturbing news that Eric Pickles (the Local Government Secretary) is advocating (with support from Vince Cable who views it as an economic boost) changes to the planning regulations that will change the presumption to  there being likely approval for builders who want to build more houses and supermarkets on green field sites (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/28/localism-bill-sacrifice-countryside-market?INTCMP=SRCH). It seems to me that green field sites need more (not less) protection. Everything that gets built on (and that currently seems every scrap of spare land around here) results in losses for what is an already pressured natural world. The only thing I would add is that, as agriculture appears almost as destructive of biodiversity as housing developments, the need to protect manicured farm land from the builders may be less imperative than keeping them off 'scruffy' scrub!