Evening Standard comment: Housing crisis needs new radical thinking

"A new report from the Housing and Finance Institute calls for radical changes to the planning system to help solve London's housing crisis.

Its chairman, Sir Mark Boleat, advocates forcing local authorities, government and public bodies to increase the supply of land for housing, and making changes to the planning rules on land use, including allowing building on the green belt. He insists brownfield sites alone will not meet demand.

The report is right to say that we need drastically to increase the supply of housing.

And that requires changing the planning regime and giving serious consideration to building on the green belt. The changes he advocates are contentious: one person's nimbyism is another's local accountability."

Read the Evening Standard's Leader Column in full here.

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