The Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss has called for one million homes to be built on Green Belt land around the country.

Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, she said: ‘Doing more of what we have been doing for the past nine years is not going to win over modern Britain. We need to be bold…We should allow villages to expand by four or five houses a year without having to go through the planning system, so people can afford to live locally.’

Truss’ comments are in contrast to the traditional policy of protecting the land, a ‘favourite among Conservative grassroot activists’. Truss is said to have made her comments in an attempt to influence a policy change in order to protect the Conservatives from being ‘annihilated by the tsunami of Corbyn and Farage’.

The National Federation of Builders addressed her comments in an article on PoliticsHome.com. It argued that there should be a ‘more nuanced discussion’ because it could ‘be wasting chances to build on brownfield and small sites’.

Rico Wojtulewicz, head of housing and planning policy at the House Builders Associations (HBA), said: ‘Our rural communities continue to shrink as young people leave and local people struggle to afford ever increasing house prices. To preserve it successfully, we encourage politicians to reimagine the greenbelt as a tool for prosperity, not a blunt instrument to resist change.’

Full articles:

→ The Daily Mail - We need to build a million homes on the Green Belt: Liz Truss announces bid for Tory party leadership with a radical plan claiming 'You have to put yourself forward no one else will'

→ PoliticsHome - Reimagining the greenbelt is vital to preserving it - NFB

→ CITYA.M. - Liz Truss wants to build on Green Belt land to fight of 'tsunami' of Farage and Corbyn, as Cabinet minister drops leadership hint