Planning chiefs have welcomed minister Hazel Blears calls for housing to be used as a tool to promote community cohesion. The communities secretary used a meeting of the Fabian Society to call for planners to ensure new housing did not create ‘social apartheid'. ‘No neighbourhood should be dominated by one group in ways which make members of other groups feel alienated, insecure or unsafe,' she said. A spokesman for the Royal Town Planning Institute said: ‘Delivering mixed communities has been a priority for many of those involved in housing and regeneration fields for years. And it will continue to be so in the future. ‘Planners will continue to work to deliver a variety of housing by type, tenure and affordability to meet the diverse needs of England's equally diverse population.' Ms Blears added: ‘When we consider the impact of immigration on some of our towns, cities and latterly, rural areas, we must ensure that community cohesion is maintained and no one faith or ethnic group can totally dominate a locality to the exclusion of all others.'
