Let’s make Stonehenge a centrepiece to a new town

Supposing that people could build a home anywhere in Britain. No restrictions – as long as it was safe to live in. What would happen? My guess is that house building would rocket and house prices would, in general, fall. People could realistically buy their first house in their twenties rather than their thirties. If they didn’t want to buy they could rent instead at much lower levels than today.

With many more people buying houses, the construction industry would boom. Industries supplying fixtures and fittings, furniture, household appliances and garden stuff would see a surge in sales. The retail industries and related logistics industry would gain a healthy fillip. The number of jobs in these industries would increase and the benefits would spread to people in related pursuits like: recruitment, training, advertising, and insurance. City, county and national government would gain in taxes to help fill that extraordinarily large hole left by the last government.

I think such a policy is a good place to start but that does not mean I think people could build homes next to Stonehenge. Nor do I think that people should be allowed to build randomly across the country – one house here another over there. No, as I have said in the past, there should be a few provisos – the main two being that: a house must be built alongside another urban building (in other words from the centre of a settlement outwards); and, no new home could be more that 800 metres from the town centre. This will help in the effective provision of schools and other similar infrastructure – including transport.