Grant Shapps, start building homes you ****

ILW

Surely councils will get more income from more houses (of the right type) why would they not want that?

DervProf

A degree of population growth control would go a long way to preventing many of the worlds problems.


There, I said it.

I hope that one day in my lifetime, someone in power will not only say it, but act upon it.

6,000,000,000 humans and rising. Isn't that enough to prevent our extinction ?

ILW

DervProf wrote: »

A degree of population growth control would go a long way to preventing many of the worlds problems.


There, I said it.

I hope that one day in my lifetime, someone in power will not only say it, but act upon it.

6,000,000,000 humans and rising. Isn't that enough to prevent our extinction ?

Does seem to be a bit of a taboo.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

ILW wrote: »

So a mix of policies designed to stop population growth, could go a long way to solving the housing shortage?

In 20 years..... Sure.

Most of the people who'll be needing houses until then are already here or are those who you can't legally block from coming.

ILW

Or encourage people to move to the places where there is surplus housing.

asc99c

Britain isn't that heavily populated really. Just try looking on Google Earth. From a view of the whole country, just pick a spot and zoom in. Even if you try to hit Birmingham, chances are you'll still zoom in and see mostly fields. The population isn't growing that quickly and there's plenty of land. Until land has planning permission, it isn't even particularly expensive. Which shows just how much of a problem the planning system is IMO.

Shakethedisease

ILW wrote: »

Or encourage people to move to the places where there is surplus housing.

Like where ?

A degree of population growth control would go a long way to preventing many of the worlds problems.

Anyway, populations are rising in the UK partly due to immigration and because people are living longer, not because there are loads of babies being born.

There are currently 4 people of working age supporting each pensioner in Britain, by 2035 this number is expected to fall to 2.5, and by 2050 to just 2. The number of people of working age in relation to retirees is known as the ‘dependency ratio’

Over population in the Uk and other Western European countries has far more to do with longevity than 'breeding'. It will self-correct at some point, due to declining fertility rates and of course, the inevitable 'popping of clogs'. There, I've said it.

ILW

Shakethedisease wrote: »

Like where ?



.

Ireland, North of England, parts of Wales.

Shakethedisease

But there are no jobs there ? You can't have it both ways. They'll only increase the benefits bill by moving..

ChiefGrasscutter

asc99c wrote: »

Britain isn't that heavily populated really. Just try looking on Google Earth. From a view of the whole country, just pick a spot and zoom in. Even if you try to hit Birmingham, chances are you'll still zoom in and see mostly fields. The population isn't growing that quickly and there's plenty of land. Until land has planning permission, it isn't even particularly expensive. Which shows just how much of a problem the planning system is IMO.

Actually the UK is one of the most overpopulated countries in the EU - in terms of No of people per square mile
(I've no idea if that "inhabitable" square mile or actual real area including mountains)
The most crowded in the EU is as I recall the netherlands.