Architect says national planning policy needs to be rewritten to avoid creeping suburban sprawl

Richard Rogers has warned that “fundamentally flawed” changes to Britain’s planning laws could turn parts of the country into an urban jungle akin to Los Angeles.

The architect said that sprawl could see towns such as Bristol and Bath merging, and leave deep scars across the country for decades to come. Speaking to the Times, Rogers said: “Cities and the countryside are two sides of the same coin – we need to conserve both.

"If the framework is not improved it will lead to the breakdown and fragmentation of cities and neighbourhoods as well as the erosion of the countryside.

The new national planning policy framework has sparked a heated debate over the future of planning in the UK, with conservationists arguing that the new policy allows rampant development, while housebuilders and developers highlight the chronic shortage of housing in the UK as part of the reason why change is desperately needed.

While acknowledging that the new framework does have positive points, especially at local level, Rogers said it could allow builders to abandon cities.

"We need well-run cities that are well built, well connected, compact and with good transport," he said."If you allow builders to spread out to new sites they will need new roads, schools and hospitals. Suburbs and sprawl are much more energy intensive."

Rogers has been a vocal critic of the new planning policy. In October the Labour peer took the fight against planning changes to the House of Lords telling fellow peers that the policy would “lead to the breakdown and fragmentation of cities".