ANALYSIS & COMMENT

摘要

In UKIP land, the housing crisis has a simple answer. Taking his figures from Migration I Watch, UKIP leader Nigel Farage claimed at the launch of his party's immigration policy last week that a new home has to be built every seven minutes to accommodate an immigrant. Tom Curtin, director of planning engagement consultancy Curtin & Co, says the upshot of this thinking is straightforward: "The policy is very simple: if we don't have any more immigration, we don't need any more greenfield housing." However, while such a solution may look simplistic to a construction audience, they clearly resonate among the wider population. Most recent polls show that UKIP's share of the vote is holding up at 15%. While down on the one-fifth share being recorded last year, this level of support would still mean that UKIP plays a pivotal role at the general election. But even without a role in the forthcoming government, it seems that UKIP's brand of nationalist populism is already having an impact on development, particularly in marginal constituencies such as Thurrock where it has a high level of support. So what are UKIP's plans to fix Britain's housing crisis, and does the shattering of traditional politics, in which the party has played an instrumental role south of the border, threaten to undermine housing delivery on a local level?