Low-Cost housing
Debate between Cheryl Gillan and John Penrose(7 years, 9 months ago)
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Mrs Cheryl Gillan (in the Chair)
Order. May I remind Members that interventions are supposed to be short and not too discursive?
John Penrose
The hon. Lady just gave a classic example of this instinctive British fear. I have discovered that in general if people see a beautiful building that is well-designed and moderately, but not too enormously, tall—Manhattan being an example of where things are incredibly tall—many of those concerns are greatly reduced. The taller something is the more impact it has on everybody else for miles and miles around and therefore the greater care we have to take. There is a middle ground that I will talk about in a minute, which will provide us with a great deal of building and housing opportunity to reduce the cost of housing without having to make everywhere look like Manhattan, if I can put it that way.
The hon. Lady’s intervention leads me to say that we need to throw off these mental shackles—these 50-year-old emotional architectural scars—and instead count the blessings of building up, not out.
Mrs Cheryl Gillan (in the Chair)
Can I check that the hon. Gentleman is not giving way?
John Penrose
I have finished my remarks.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered low cost housing.