Much of the green belt isn’t actually worth protecting – so let’s use it now to build vital homes
Much of it is car parks, old industrial sites, heavily developed farmland and scrubland
DURING Margaret Thatcher’s Downing Street years, a flaming torch was the Tory logo.
Although the early version of it looked more like a Mr Whippy ice cream, it symbolised her attempts to get government off the backs of people.
David Cameron, steeped in the marketing industry and once a constant cyclist, extinguished Maggie’s torch.
Instead, he planted a tree on all Tory literature and hoped it would help voters to see him as greener and gentler than the Iron Lady.
There’s probably no room in Theresa May’s overflowing inbox for many PR stunts — but if our second female Prime Minister wanted a new logo, she should choose an image of a house.
The desire for a home of our very own, ideally with a small garden, is deeply rooted in the British character and the Tories should champion that.
Sadly, however, many young families now fear it will never happen for them, no matter how hard they work.
The increased proportion of Britons who became home-owners during the Thatcher years has been reversed.
Many young Londoners hand over two-thirds of their income to private landlords, and saving to buy is out of the question.
Those who manage to buy are not much happier.
Mortgaged up to their eyeballs, their new homes are often more like rabbit hutches.
Estate agents would describe them as “cosy” but the truth is they are places where kids don’t have anywhere quiet for homework and there’s no spare room for when Granny visits.
It’s a disgrace that we build the smallest new homes in Europe, at the highest cost.
And, to top it all, our average commute to work is longer than for most Europeans.
Two words explain why we have this triple down of a problem: GREEN BELT.
The Adam Smith Institute think tank has calculated that 1.4million more families could get on the housing ladder if our nation’s politicians had the courage to build on just 1.5 per cent of this protected land encircling our bigger cities.
And what we are protecting often isn’t worth protecting.
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Much of the not-very-green belt is car parks, old industrial sites, heavily developed farmland and scrubland.
Worse, it’s also nearly all privately owned, so the bits that actually are the right colour can’t be fully enjoyed by the public.
The green belt should be renamed gold belt because land that gets planning permission can become up to 200 times more valuable.
Theresa May could become the modern-day Queen Midas if she allowed just a small percentage of this land to become places where new family homes are built.
Mostly, the people who currently get rich when planning permission changes are already-wealthy landowners, but targeted taxes on landowners can ensure we all benefit from turning wasted land into land for homes.
The money from that extra tax can be invested in schools, hospitals, roads and beautiful parkland, so that new housing projects are not the eyesores they have often been in the past and we can avoid overloading under-pressure community services.
Next week Mrs May and her Cabinet minister who has responsibility for housing, Sajid Javid, are not unveiling a new Tory logo but are announcing a new housing policy.
As The Sun revealed, local authorities are set to come under much greater pressure to build the houses necessary to end Britain’s crazy house price inflation.
And it is crazy.
The Shelter housing charity calculated we’d be paying £10.45 for a four-pint carton of milk if dairy prices had risen at the same pace as house prices over the last few decades.
One chicken would cost £51.18 — and chicken is the word for politicians too frightened to do what is in the interests of young families.
If we build on just a small slice of the un-green belt, home ownership will start to become much more affordable.
If the Government’s new policy sets the right targets, it’s a stand-up moment for local councils who have the power to put the needs of young families before silly protection of the not-very-green belt.
They must not duck their responsibility.