The planning minister of the UK, Nick Boles has said that the authorities need more than 1,500 square miles of land in order to cater to the housing demand and solve the crisis in the sector.

Boles said that as there is a chronic shortage of new properties in the country, the land should be increased by a third. He warned that about two million acres of green fields might have to be converted in order to address the issue of shortages in the housing sector.

He estimates that the amount of developed land might have to be increased by a third to cater to the growing demand. He assured conservationists that the lawmakers will protect the Green Belt but warned that large areas of `open land' in the UK might have to be used for building new homes. He also criticized developers for building `pig ugly' housing buildings which results in communities not agreeing to new developments.

Mr Boles, "We're going to protect the Green Belt but if people want to have housing for their kids they have got to accept we need to build more on some open land. In the UK and England at the moment we've got about nine per cent of land developed. All we need to do is build on another two to three per cent of land and we'll have solved a housing problem."