“We Need 300,000 New Homes Each Year”

Britain needs to build up to 300,000 new houses every year so that young families can afford their own homes, a senior Treasury minister has said. Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury said a radical building programme was necessary over the “longer term” because the country had failed to construct enough properties to house a growing population in recent decades. It comes after figures showed the numbers of younger people being forced to rent because they cannot afford to buy a home rose sharply since the financial crisis of 2008. Last week, government figures showed the proportion of under-35s owning their own home fell from 21 per cent in 2008-09 to 18 per cent by 2012-13. Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.