Public support more homes being built in their area

New polling for the Centre for Policy Studies judging the impact of the housing crisis on public attitudes has found that the majority of Britons would support more homes being built in their area.

The survey of 2,036 adults, carried to by ComRes, discovered a margin of 48% per cent to 33 per cent in support of more homes being built in their area, while 63 per cent of voters agree that house prices near them have become too high. Additionally, there is a majority at every age advocating buying a house rather than renting, showing that there is both the appetite for more housing and the will to allow the government to act to deliver it.

However, proposals such as weakening green belt protections around train stations and other existing infrastructure, or permitting building on the least attractive land within it, both remain unpopular with the voters.

Robert Colvile, director of the CPS, said: “Unsurprisingly, this polling backs up the assumption that people want houses they can afford - and think that house price inflation has gone way too far. What’s interesting about this poll is that a significant majority, 48 per cent of voters, support more homes being built in their local area. This is a huge shift from attitudes even a few years ago where NIMBYism was the clear winner. It’s clear from this polling that if this government is to win over ordinary working people, fixing the housing crisis should be top of ministers' to-do list.”