Exclusive: ASI report "A Garden of One's Own" features in the Evening Standard

The Evening Standard ran an exclusive piece on the ASI's new paper: "A Garden of One's Own: Suggestions for development in the metropolitan Green Belt".

London will turn into a “Dubai on Thames” dominated by skyscrapers for the wealthy unless restrictions on building homes on the Green Belt are lifted, the author of a report claims today.

Tom Papworth, of free-market think tank the Adam Smith Institute, said the “unsustainable” policy of protecting Green Belt land from almost any development would lead to further high-rise blocks having to be built in the capital, and house prices continuing to soar.

Currently, more than 260 towers of over 20 storeys are being built or planned in London, with most providing flats for professionals and investors.

Mr Papworth said there were only enough brownfield sites left in the South-East for about a third of the estimated 1.8 million homes needed for the region by 2030 — and some open green space will have to be sacrificed.

Read the full article here.

The new ASI report, "A Garden of One's Own: Suggestions for development in the metropolitan Green Belt", seeks to provide location-specific examples of land under green belt protection which, if built over, would provide enough housing to solve the current crisis and meet all additional housing need until 2030.