Rishi Sunak has pledged to turbocharge the development of cities and build hundreds and thousands of new homes for young people.
It comes after the Prime Minister admitted the Conservatives have ‘much more to do’ to help young people get on the housing ladder, as he acknowledged ‘people’s anger’ over the housing crisis.
New plans to be unveiled today will see shops, offices and commercial buildings converted into homes, while urban councils will be told they can only refuse planning permission on brownfield sites in exceptional circumstances.
Rishi Sunak has said there is potential for up to a million homes to be built on these brownfield sites.
Rishi Sunak has pledged to turbocharge the development of cities and build hundreds and thousands of new homes for young people
In London, ministers suggest they could offer up 11,500 homes a year in areas where there is a high demand.
In an article for The Times, Rishi Sunak said: ‘I understand people’s anger when that dream [of home ownership] feels too far away for too many, especially the younger generation.
New plans to be unveiled today will see shops, offices and commercial buildings converted into homes
‘We know there is much more to do. [But] to solve the housing challenge, we must ask not just ‘how many’, but ‘where’.’
Rishi Sunak argues that it is wrong to build new greenfield estates in the countryside where residents strongly oppose such developments and there isn’t the infrastructure to support them i.e. GP surgeries, schools and roads.
Sunak accused London Mayor Sadiq Khan of missing the capital’s housing target of 30,000 homes per year and said this was pushing developers further afield.