3 million homes required

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According to our beloved government, we need to build an additional 3 million homes by 2020. No one seems to be asking why we need them.

One of the reasons given is that more homes on the market will reduce prices. Housing in the UK is very expensive, one of the main causes of this has got to be the massive increase in average people investing in property, either buying second homes or buy-to-let. Building more homes without controlling this kind of investment is not going to help make property more affordable.

With our population forecast to reach 70 million over the next few decades, we need to make some big decisions on where we see this country heading. Is our population getting too big? If not, how do we house everyone? Has anyone calculated how much of the current housing stock stands empty while investors wait for the right time to sell?

The government seems to be doing little to tackle the underlying issues behind this perceived need and is, as usual, trying to 'fix' things at too high a level.

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