A report by the Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Select Committee on planning for sustainable housing and communities has highlighted concerns over water availability in the four growth areas, including FoodFen.

The Government plans include between 250,000 and 500,000 new homes in the London-Cambridge-M11 corridor between 2003-and 2031.

Jacob Tompkins, of water industry body Water UK, said all four areas earmarked for development faced water shortages. "We're building in the most water scarce area of the country and the UK has less water per head of population than any other country in Europe."

In its report, the Committee said is was "dismayed that the water companies were not involved in any of the of the discussions about new housing targets."

The Committee concluded that an environmental impact "may show that [the areas] cannot support in a sustainable way such a large development programme".

The full copy of the report is available from the Select Committee website here.