The Chancellor Philip Hammond should make his Budget about building more affordable houses, says ex-Planning Minister

BRITAIN needs to build a lot more houses.

The Sun has said it for years. It’s the only way Sun readers will get the chance to own a home like their parents.

The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, should make his Budget a budget for housing. He should make some big announcements.

He should launch a Grenfell Housing Commission to build 50,000 affordable homes a year. That would be the best memorial to the people who died in the appalling Grenfell Tower fire.

He should raise up to £50billion with a special Grenfell Housing Bond that offers savers a tax-free return.

The money should go to pay for new homes on the huge amount of land that government and local councils already own. The homes must be genuinely affordable and give young people a real chance of ownership.

The Chancellor should reform the land market to cap the profits of wealthy landowners.

Councils should get the power to buy land for housing at a reasonable price so they can spend the money they save on roads, drains, schools and GP surgeries.

He should tell big housebuilders to stop dragging their feet and build on sites where they have planning permission.

If they don’t build out a site on schedule, they should be forced to offer the plots to other builders who will.

He should tell people who own a house in an urban or suburban area that he wants to make it easy for them to add a granny flat or extra rooms for the kids.

From now on they should be able to add one or two storeys to their home without going through a full planning application. All they should have to do is stick to a design that fits with the local area.

It will take years before sanity returns to Britain’s housing market. So there’s no time to lose.

Let’s get a move on, Chancellor.