IEA director brands Osborne's brownfield announcement 'wholly inadequate'

It was reported on Monday that the chancellor will use his speech at Mansion House today to offer incentives persuading developers to build on brownfield land.

It comes after Mr Osborne said last week: ‘The only long-term answer to Britain’s housing problems is to build many more houses in this country.’

Mark Littlewood, director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, branded the plans ‘wholly inadequate’ to improve ‘deteriorating affordability’ of the UK housing market.

‘Less than a third of brownfield areas are in regions where housing demand is highest, namely London and the South East. These proposals show that politicians continue to turn a blind eye to mounting evidence that inflexible planning restrictions on greenfield and green belt sites in these areas are a key driver of house price rises.

‘While these small steps will help at the margin in addressing a severe shortage of housing, radical reform of the planning system is required if the government are to ease spiralling house prices. This will require substantial development of both brownfield and greenfield sites’.