What CPRE head thinks of Boles’ idea of building on 10% of the countryside

I argued in the meeting that the relationship between land and house prices is more complex than Nick Boles seems to think. His line was that land for housing is expensive simply because its supply is limited by the planning system, and that this in turn is what makes housing expensive. I acknowledge that there is a relationship between the price of land and the price of housing, but argued that the relationship is not all one-way. Property can be expensive for reasons unrelated to the supply of land – interest rates, the viability of other investments, property taxes, housing booms engineered by central government etc. etc. – and this will put up the price of land. Thus land prices rose significantly during their recent housing bubbles, even though there was plenty of land available for development, relatively few planning restrictions, and lots of homes (or ‘housing units’) being built.

Nick seemed unwilling to hear this, preferring to put his faith in a sort of punk Barkerism: weaken planning, release more greenfield land for development, and lots of beautiful homes will be built. God bless Policy Exchange…

Shaun Spiers, CPRE