Minister calls for more house creation on open land

DERBY City Council's latest bid to kick-start developments at key derelict sites came as Planning Minister Nick Boles called for more open land to be built on.

Mr Boles argued that increasing the amount of developed land by a third would address the UK's housing shortage.

In an interview with BBC's Newsnight programme, he said: "People have got to accept that we've got to build more on some open land. We're going to protect the greenbelt but, if people want to have housing for their kids, they have to accept we need to build more on some open land.

"In the UK and England at the moment we've got about nine per cent of land developed. All we need to do is build on another two to three per cent of land and we'll have solved a housing problem."

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Mr Boles also called for "beautiful" housing to be built that was sensitive to its local area, quoting Stamford as an example of attractive housing.

Matthew Dyas, founder of Boarded Up Britain, said Derby City Council was right to focus more on redeveloping derelict sites. He said: "People walk past these buildings every day of their lives. We need to stop turning a blind eye and do something about them."