North Faces Housing Crisis Unless Powers Are Devolved

London’s housing crisis will move north unless radical powers are handed to mayors in Liverpool, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, experts have warned. The thinktank, Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), said ministers would miss their target of building 1m new homes by 2020 unless it devolved power over housing to the regions. The IPPR North study, Closer to Home, said the metro mayors, due to be elected in May 2017, should be given control over the 1.6m hectares of greenbelt land in England to alleviate the shortage of affordable housing. It found a huge gap between the amount of available brownfield land and the long-term housing need. Read more on the IPPR website.