'There’s no need to build on the green belt'

Automatic planning permission would be granted on many brownfield sites in England in an attempt to boost house-building, under government plans.

Business Secretary Sajid Javid told Today: “We’re creating a register of brownfield sites around the country that are suitable for housebuilding.

"What we’re going to do now is go further and say that we will zone them for housing development… that means that those homes can get built a lot quicker.”

When asked whether building on the green belt was necessary, he added: “There’s no need to build on the green belt…there’s plenty of land that’s not green belt that we can build on that is suitable for housing and we need to get on with it.”