Michael Gove says record levels of migration puts pressure on housing as Britain hasn’t built enough homes ‘for generations’ – and he sparks fears over green spaces with claim ‘we can’t concentrate on brownfield land alone’

Michael Gove today said the current record levels of migration to the UK were putting pressure on housing as he admitted not enough homes are being built.

The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Secretary acknowledged the construction of new houses across Britain had been too slow ‘for generations’.

Mr Gove stressed there was a need to both bring down migration and build more properties.

But he prompted new concerns about a loss of green spaces as he warned meeting housing demand couldn’t be done by ‘concentrating on brownfield land alone’. 

Official figures published last week showed net migration to Britain reached a record 745,000 last year, which has prompted calls for new restrictions among Tory MPs.

Michael Gove said the current record levels of migration to the UK were putting pressure on housing as he admitted not enough homes are being built

The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Secretary acknowledged the construction of new houses across Britain had been too slow ‘for generations’

Official figures published last week showed net migration to Britain reached a record 745,000 last year, which has prompted calls for new restrictions among Tory MPs

Asked if Britain did not have the number of homes to match the demand from record migration levels, Mr Gove told Times Radio this morning: ‘Yes, in fact I think actually the situation is – if anything – worse than you depict.

‘It is the case that the migratory flows put more pressure on housing, but we haven’t built enough homes overall for generations.

‘This Government is going to hit its target of a million new homes in this Parliament, but we do need to go further.’

Ministers needed to massively increase housebuilding and significantly reduce immigration to meet the challenge, Mr Gove added.

He said: ‘I think we need to do both. I think it’s important when we’re looking at the migration figures to recognise that some of these figures are students, some of these figures are Ukrainian refugees, some of them are British nationals from Hong Kong.

‘But you are right, we do need to bring migration down. And you’re also correct, we do need to build more homes.’

In July, Mr Gove set out plans to focus on brownfield sites and urban areas – rather than ‘concreting over the countryside’ – in a bid to boost housing supply.

He hailed efforts to ‘intensively’ concentrate new housebuilding in Britain’s cities as part of a ‘new inner city renaissance’.

But Mr Gove today admitted his plans to build on brownfield land won’t solely be enough to meet demand.

He said: ‘Earlier this year, I outlined a long term plan for housing which will allow us to build more homes, particularly making effective use of brownfield land.

‘You can’t meet the demand that we have by concentrating on brownfield land alone, but it is certainly the case that it is both economically and environmentally the right thing to do to intensify development in our cities.’

The Conservative manifesto ahead of the 2019 general election set a target of building 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s.

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