Thread: British building boom 'would create 200,000 jobs'

More than 200,000 new construction jobs will be created and the UK economy boosted by £75bn if housebuilding returns to pre-war levels, according to economic research.

The findings are a boost to the Government's proposals to reform the planning system, which it claims will increase housebuilding and drive economic growth.

The Coalition wants to adopt a "presumption in favour of sustainable development", but critics say this will lead to unrestrained building in the countryside.

The new report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) says that if 300,000 homes are built a year by 2015, compared to an average of 184,000 between 2000 and 2010, then the extra supply of properties will reduce rental payments by 11pc and subsequently boost the standard of living for people under the age of 35 by 4pc.

Construction started on only 95,445 houses last year as developers focused on shoring up their finances amid an uncertain economy.

This compares to an average of 300,000 in the 1930s. The CEBR claims this housing boom helped to bring the UK economy back to growth after the Great Depression and created jobs for more than a million construction workers. If housebuilding returned to similar levels by 2015, it adds, 201,000 extra jobs would be created in the sector.

and that will happen, the house market is stagnate