Tory minister plans massive building drive
THE GOVERNMENT’S planning minister is calling for an enormous increase in housing levels in Britain in order to meet rising demand.
Nick Boles, a Tory who was appointed to his role in David Cameron’s September reshuffle, will today reveal a plan to expand the area that property can be built on by up to a third.
“In the UK and England at the moment we’ve got about nine per cent of land developed. All we need to do is build on another two to three per cent of land and we’ll have solved a housing problem,” Boles will tell BBC2’s Newsnight this evening, calling the “right to a home with a little bit of ground around it” a “basic moral right”.
The area equates to around 1,500 square miles – more than twice the size of Greater London. However, his plans do not include the “greenbelt” land around the capital.
Boles believes his proposals will combat a growing housing crisis, drive down the cost of property, and provide a welcome boost to the economy.
“We’re going to protect the greenbelt but if people want to have housing for their kids they have got to accept we need to build more on some open land,” he will say this evening.