A Conservative group of modernisers, backed by Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude and Planning Minister Nick Boles, will today recommend that villages are expanded by a third to solve Britain’s housing crisis.
The group, called Bright Blue, says that those who don’t own a home should be allowed to buy any piece of unprotected land and build on it.
They also propose that homeowners should be given the right to build a one storey extension without planning permission, while councils should be forced to put aside new land for 3% growth in house building every year. Campaigners denounced the plans.
Source: Daily Mail
We say: Hang on – so, the idea is that people who don’t currently own their own home, are given the right to buy any piece of land and build on it? Hmm. Given that those without their own homes are typically low on capital, we wonder whether there’s a flaw in this otherwise cunning plan.
Have the “Modernisers” considered how the building projects will be funded? Right now, the banks are struggling to lend to businesses with proven track records in property development…let alone have-a-go-developers, with no history and little capital behind them.
We’d like to propose a meeting between the “Modernisers” and the “Realists” and perhaps also with the “Think Things Through” Committee…