Grantham MP Nick Boles discusses housing plans
Grantham’s MP Nick Boles appeared on Newsnight on Wednesday to discuss his plans to build more houses in the country.
The planning minister, who currently lives in Stamford, said people cannot afford houses because too few have been built.
He was interviewed in the historic part of Stamford, which was described by the programme as a ‘utopia’.
Mr Boles said it one of the most beautiful areas of the country and features ‘all kinds of housing for all levels’ of people. His view is that more developments should follow the town’s style of design and have more space between houses.
He said: “There’s a basic moral right to have a home with a little bit of garden around it to bring up your family in.”
He added that people have the right to healthcare and education and those who are working hard should also have the right to a home with a garden.
According to Mr Boles, most British people in an ideal world would live in a cottage. He added: “My view is that the world could be more ideal than we have allowed it.”
Referring to some modern developments as having ‘pig ugly’ houses Mr Boles said: “The reason we object to people building on open land is because we build rubbish.”
He said the Greenbelt is vitally important. But added: “If people want to have housing for their kids they’ve got to accept that we’ve got to build on some open land.”
Currently 91 per cent of the country is undeveloped, Mr Boles said he would prefer to live in a country where 88 per cent was undeveloped.
He said: “Over the whole of England there’s a huge amount of room to build.”
One of the reasons more houses are needed, according to Mr Boles, is because of the amount of immigrants that were allowed into the country that are now British. He said: “We need to have less immigration and more house building.”
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Thursday 23 May 2013
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