Government's Handling Of UK Housing Shortage to Be Reviewed

Nick Boles, the planning minister, is facing a parliamentary inquiry into the government's handling of the acute shortage of new homes in the UK. Clive Betts MP, the Labour chairman of the communities and local government committee, has announced an investigation and said he would ask whether the government's two-year-old planning policy was working when only 100,000 homes are being built and at least 250,000 are said to be needed. The move came as the shadow housing minister, Emma Reynolds, attacked the coalition's "laissez faire" approach and revealed Labour had asked the former BBC chairman Sir Michael Lyons to investigate whether new towns and garden cities, capturing the spirit of Stevenage, Milton Keynes and others built in the years after the second world war, would be needed. Boles has admitted part of a key plank of the national planning policy framework might be too complex and would be reviewed. Read more on the Guardian website.