  Using the multislit LDSS-2 spectrograph on the {\it William Herschel
Telescope} we have completed a redshift survey in the magnitude range $22.5<B<
24$ which has produced 73 redshifts representing a 73\% complete sample
uniformly-selected from four deep fields at high Galactic latitude. The survey
extends out to $z>1$ and includes the highest redshift galaxy ($z=1.108$) yet
discovered in a field sample. The median redshift, $\zmed=0.46$, and form of
the redshift distribution constitute compelling evidence against simple
luminosity evolution as an explanation of the large excess of faint galaxies
($\simeq\times$2--4 no-evolution) seen in this magnitude range. Rather we
identify the excess population as blue objects with $z\sim 0.4$ and $B$\,
luminosities similar to local $L^*$ galaxies indicating a dramatic decrease in
the density of such objects over the last Hubble time, confirming the trends
found in brighter redshift surveys. We also find a marked absence of {\it very}
low redshift galaxies ($z<$0.1) at faint limits, severely constraining any
significant steepening of the local field galaxy luminosity function at low
luminosities.
