Plans recently unveiled by the UK government will, if implemented, generate a
major increase in new housebuilding in one of the most crowded and congested
parts of the UK. The plans fail to take account of the impact on people living in
London and the South East—and in the rest of the UK—of such a policy. The
policy is based on a simplistic view of how demographic change affects the
housing market and it reflects a misunderstanding of economic forces and a
failure to think about impacts outside the South East. More seriously it reflects a
form of central planning that is insensitive to the real needs of people.