The Government??s planning minister, Nick Boles, has warned that an area twice the size of Greater London needs to be built on to meet housing demand.
In an interview with BBC Two??s Newsnight he said that, rather than fight all development, people need to recognise that some buildings could be more beautiful than nature itself. His comments though, come as much of England and Wales has been hit by flooding, which in some parts has been made worse by planners allowing development on natural flood plains which are meant to fill with water.
On Newsnight Mr Boles said: ?We??re going to protect the green belt ?? but if people want to have housing for their kids they have got to accept we need to build more on some open land. 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 percent of land and we??ll have solved a housing problem.??
This would see the amount of land paved over increase from 4,531sqm to more than 6,000sqm. The 1,510sqm increase is more than twice the area covered by Greater London.
Boles went on to tell the programme that he does not want ?lazy?? builders to fill the countryside with ?pig ugly?? houses.
A report last year from the Institute of Public Policy Research think tank warned of a housing supply ?black hole?? by 2025 when England will face a shortfall of 750,000 homes. Boles suggests that people who oppose more development are being selfish for denying adequate space for their children and grandchildren.
