Houses 'Better Than Green Fields'

Building houses will create more ‘human happiness’ than preserving fields, the Planning Minister has claimed.  Nick Boles says the Government is determined to speed up the rate of house building, despite opposition from countryside groups. And he said communities who refused to support the initiative risked losing their hospitals and high street shops as their populations shrank.  Mr Boles acknowledged that rural rights campaigners and Conservative supporters were ‘very worried’ when greenfield land was replaced by ‘the sheer ugliness and soullessness of housing estates’.  Mr Boles said: ‘It’s a difficult thing to be a Conservative MP arguing for more houses to be built, sometimes on green fields.’  But he branded councils who refuse to co-operate ‘deeply irresponsible’.  He said: ‘There’s no question that some local authorities are dragging their feet.  ‘Some of them think to themselves they will sit on their hands and let applications come in and refuse them and then blame Nick Boles. It’s deeply irresponsible.’  Read more on the Daily Mail website.