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The silver bullet to fix the housing market

Domestic buildings cover just 1.1% of land.

Non-domestic buildings cover another 0.65% and roads make up 2.2%. Just 4% of English land is actually built on.

96% of land in the UK is not built on.

That 96% is made up of gardens (about 5%), water (about 3%). The rest is ‘green space’.

If England’s 20 million homes cover just 1.1% of its land, you could increase the housing stock by 20% – 4 million homes – and only build on another 0.2% of land. Surely, we can find the space to do this.

Even if you give each home a large garden, you’re still talking less than 1% of English land to increase the housing stock by 20%.

Fly over the UK and you see acre upon acre of barely used land.

http://moneyweek.com/the-silver-bullet-to-fix-the-housing-market/
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Comments

  • Blacklight
    Blacklight Posts: 1,565 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    moneyweek lol
  • mayonnaise
    mayonnaise Posts: 3,690 Forumite
    Build more houses.
    What a novel idea...
    Don't blame me, I voted Remain.
  • princeofpounds
    princeofpounds Posts: 10,396 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    This line of argument has been discussed several times on the forum (and probably elsewhere in the past).

    Wouldn't surprise me if money week journalist saw it here.

    There's some debate about the exact numbers, but whether it is 2pc or 9pc the amount of developed land is still very low, as any plane ride over the UK will show.
  • Graham_Devon
    Graham_Devon Posts: 58,560 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    It's a poor argument.

    We have flood plains, marsh, bog, mountains, moorland.

    You can't reasonably build on these areas, which means the 96% talked about is reduced drastically.
  • Generali
    Generali Posts: 36,411 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    It's a poor argument.

    We have flood plains, marsh, bog, mountains, moorland.

    You can't reasonably build on these areas, which means the 96% talked about is reduced drastically.

    There are also plenty of smallholdings being used as tax shelters by wealthy Londoners in the South East that would make fantastic building land.
  • robmatic
    robmatic Posts: 1,217 Forumite

    We have flood plains, marsh, bog, mountains, moorland.

    The biggest problem is the percentage of the country that is someone's back yard for NIMBY purposes.

    Everyone agrees that we should build more houses, as long as those houses are not within about 10 miles of their own home.
  • chucknorris
    chucknorris Posts: 10,795 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Generali wrote: »
    There are also plenty of smallholdings being used as tax shelters by wealthy Londoners in the South East that would make fantastic building land.


    How does that work Gen?
    Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one birdThe only time Chuck Norris was wrong was when he thought he had made a mistakeChuck Norris puts the "laughter" in "manslaughter".I've started running again, after several injuries had forced me to stop
  • antrobus
    antrobus Posts: 17,386 Forumite
    How does that work Gen?

    Farmland can be exempt from Inheritance Tax for one thing.
  • chucknorris
    chucknorris Posts: 10,795 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    antrobus wrote: »
    Farmland can be exempt from Inheritance Tax for one thing.


    We don't have any children so that wouldn't be any use to us, (or to be exact to our non existent heirs).
    Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one birdThe only time Chuck Norris was wrong was when he thought he had made a mistakeChuck Norris puts the "laughter" in "manslaughter".I've started running again, after several injuries had forced me to stop
  • CLAPTON
    CLAPTON Posts: 41,865 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    It's a poor argument.

    We have flood plains, marsh, bog, mountains, moorland.

    You can't reasonably build on these areas, which means the 96% talked about is reduced drastically.

    the argument in favour of green belts etc is to provide the lung for our cities and recreational land for the citizens

    flood plains, marsh, bog, mountains and moorland provide excellent examples of this
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