Nick Boles offers a recipe for senseless sprawl For a minister charged with overseeing the planning system, Nick Boles appears to have precious little faith in the way it works, despite a major overhaul just a few months ago. Since his appointment in September, he has given the impression of being someone who sees planning as an impediment to prosperity rather than a balancing act between the competing requirements of economic growth and preserving the countryside for future generations. On Newsnight last night, Mr Boles highlighted what on the face of it is a compelling statistic: that for all the sound and fury about developers concreting over our green and pleasant land, just 9 per cent of England is actually built upon. All we need to do, he said, is put homes on another two or three per cent and the housing crisis will be solved. Yet this was a meaningless figure, if artfully deployed, since much of the country cannot be built upon, either because the land is unsuitable or because it is protected. The area where most of the housing is needed is in the south-east of England, because that is where economic activity is at its highest, and where many young people and immigrants gravitate to find work. So it is in this part of the country, already densely populated, that most of the building would have to take place. The figure quoted by Mr Boles equates to 1,500 square miles of open countryside - more than twice the area covered by Greater London. Spread across the country in small developments, that could, conceivably, be absorbed; but concentrated in a particular region, it would be a recipe for untamed urban sprawl. Furthermore, it is unclear exactly what point Mr Boles is trying to make. Yes, more homes are needed; but planning permission has already been granted on 400,000 plots, and there is enough undeveloped urban land for 1.5 million new dwellings. The minister seems to be less keen on brownfield development, which would inevitably be high-density, because it is a "right" for everyone to have a home with a garden. That is an extension of the equalities agenda that might make even Harriet Harman blush. The reason why homes are not being built has less to do with the obduracy of selfish Nimbys, as Mr Boles appears to regard them, and more with the dearth of mortgage finance and a depressed market. Imaginative policies to unlock these projects should take priority over telling people in rural England to stop writing letters objecting to new developments. After all, the dangers of unfettered building are evident in the serious flooding seen this week. Indeed, if a building boom is the route to economic growth, why is Spain in such trouble?