Housing developments are planned for green fields on the outskirts of Tyneside but the green areas are liable to flooding. The environmental costs of house building could encourage people to leave Tyneside. It is a shame that the inner city areas of Newcastle and North Tyneside have been overlooked.

Residents in Benton could be surrounded by hundreds of new homes. Persimmon Homes is seeking permission to build more than 500 houses on farmland.

There have been plans for housing in the Hazlerigg area in the north of Newcastle. Thousands of new homes are being built across North Tyneside in places including Backworth, Benton, North Shields, Wallsend and West Monkseaton. A planning inspector is looking at the council’s 15-year Local Plan, which is proposing to earmark Murton Gap and Killingworth Moor for around 5,000 new houses.