More people living in “buzzy urban” London and other cities will boost Britain’s creativity and productivity without the need for long commutes, Michael Gove argued on Tuesday.
The Communities Secretary also stressed that a home-building boom in the capital, Leeds, Cambridge and other cities would avoid “gobbling up” green land for more housing.
He defended his new housing plans after they came under fire from Labour and at least one Tory MP, with the Government having watered down its mandatory target to build 300,000 new homes a year.
Mr Gove stressed that cities in the UK are less dense, particularly outside London, than European ones.
“We know that the more people you have living in close proximity to one another, in buzzy urban areas, the greater the level of creativity...essentially it adds to the productivity of the country,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“It’s also the case that the right sort of densification in our cities creates the attractive environment that you have in the heart of Haussmann-designed Paris, or Gaudi-designed Barcelona, and we see it ourselves in places like Marylebone and Pimlico.
“It’s also the case that if you take this approach that you are not gobbling up green land, not destroying natural habitat, and you are also making it easier for people to have walkable, liveable communities without the need for long commutes.”
However, he admitted on Tuesday that £1 billion trumpeted for a house-building boom in London was not new money.
The Government announced on Monday that it was releasing £1 billion of funding to City Hall for much-needed affordable housing and estate regeneration in the capital.
But asked on LBC Radio whether this was new money, or whether in fact it was in a previously announced affordable homes programme, the Communities Secretary said: “Yes, but it had not been allocated before.”
Pressed by presenter Nick Ferrari that he had made it sound like new money, he added: “I explained where it was going. We get the money into the department’s bank account, so it were, but then until it’s spent and allocated it’s there sitting in the account.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced in November 2020 that the capital had been allocated though not yet given £4 billion in the Affordable Homes Programme for 2021-26, which is understood to include the £1 billion highlighted by Mr Gove, with the restrictions on this funding having been relaxed for regeneration.
A source close to the Mayor stressed: “This isn’t new money.”
South Cambridgeshire Conservative MP Anthony Browne has also warned that plans to build thousands of new homes in Cambridge would be “nonsense” given a lack of water in this region.
Mr Gove said this could be addressed by building more reservoirs, though, such development projects would take many years to complete.
