New Planning Minister Said ‘Time Was Ripe’ for Green Belt Deregulation in 2014

International Business Times

he deputy mayor of London, Kit Malthouse, has called for regulation to be loosened so that new houses can be built on London’s greenbelt.

He said that London’s boundaries hadn’t been reviewed since 1965 and that the “time was ripe” for housing deregulation.

Malthouse described the current housing shortage in London as “an emergency”, comparing it to Dutch ‘tulip mania’, the 17th century phenomenon in the Netherlands in which the price of a tulip bulb was inflated to 10 times the salary of the average skilled craftsman.

Speaking at the Cities 2030 event in London, he also called for a removal of barriers to market entry for small firms.