UK Plans to Build Almost 1Mln Homes by 2020 – Housing Minister

The British government plans to build one million houses in the next five years to bridge a widening gap between the growing number of households and the homes built in England over the past decades, the UK housing minister said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Less than 460,000 of the needed 974,000 homes were built between 2011 and 2014, according to the estimates of the National Housing Federation.

Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis told the BBC that "something like a million homes" would be constructed by 2020 if the government met its objective.

Housing shortage in the United Kingdom has been linked to a lack of empty land, ballooning house prices and rising rent due to decades-long deficit.