Growth is the word on Tory lips at present. David Cameron responded to Andrew Tyrie’s criticism when he arrived in Manchester yesterday evening, saying that the government has “an incredibly active growth strategy”. And there has been some ‘action on growth’ in the last 24 hours. The right-to-buy is being resuscitated. And the coalition has announced that it will release thousands of acres of publicly owned land to build 100,000 houses and support 200,000 jobs by 2015. The plan will be paid for by selling houses later down the line; the government hopes that the taxpayer will make a profit under this scheme.
This reform might stoke the already over-heated fire between the government and the National Trust over planning reforms. Francis Maude, regarded as a zealot when it comes to delivering planning reform, has told the Independent on Sunday that his opponents are talking “bollocks”.
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