Build home every 3 mins for bursting UK

A homE will have to be built every three minutes for at least 20 years to cope with rapid population growth, a report warned yesterday.

If official projections are correct, an extra 9.7million people will need to be housed by 2039, it said. With a typical home housing 2.3 people, 4.25million more would be needed.

The figures were set out in a pamphlet by ex-banker Lord hodgson. The Tory peer, who last year carried out a review of electoral law for the Government, called for a public debate on the effects of population growth and immigration, which fuels it. he called on Theresa may to appoint a minister for demography to prepare the country for the rise in numbers.

Published by the Civitas think-tank, his paper said housing is ‘only the beginning of the demands any increase in population will make’. It pointed out more citizens would mean more schools and healthcare facilities would be needed, along with more teachers, doctors and nurses to run them. It said new citizens would also need jobs, adding: ‘They will expect the huge support network demanded by modern society – not just critical support functions like the police and fire services but other softer resources such as social services and leisure facilities, such as swimming pools and football pitches.’

According to the office for National Statistics, the population rose by 538,500 in the 12 months to the end of June last year – or 1,475 people every day. The oNS predicts immigration will fall in future years, but will still account for two thirds of the population increase expected.

Lord hodgson said the predicted 9.7 million rise ‘is a figure difficult to imagine. To put this in context, this is equivalent to 3.5 times the population of Greater manchester’. he added: ‘Society is underpinned by a sense of fairness. Too rapid an increase in population may challenge the concept of what is fair.’