The new Government has made a number of big-splash announcements about how it plans to change Britain. To its supporters, this shows Labour “hitting the ground running”. Labour has claimed that 1.5 million new homes will be built between now and the next election. Ed Miliband has nodded through three large, controversial solar farms and declared he will “unleash a U.K. solar rooftop revolution”. Some are concerned that the Government’s green zeal will turn prime agricultural land into deserts of silicon. But what are the actual footprints of such developments? Do these plans have any chance of succeeding? And are fears about their consequences groundless alarmism?
Labour’s plans for this gigantic home-building effort were originally unveiled in October last year. The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, reiterated this promise last week, albeit characteristically without any detail. As many have observed, building 1.5 million homes in five years requires 821 to be completed every single day. Or 1,150 a day if these poor builders are going to be allowed to take weekends off.
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