Iain Duncan Smith calls for an end to tower blocks in Britain and demands higher taxes on empty luxury homes
The ex-minister said that tower blocks should be replaced by 'low-rise buildings' in the wake of Grenfell Tower disaster
IAIN DUNCAN SMITH today called for an end to the building of tower blocks in Britain in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster.
The ex-minister also suggested slapping extra taxes on foreign investors who buy up properties and leave them empty, in a bid to solve the country’s housing crisis.
IDS - who quit as Work and Pensions Secretary last year - said the Grenfell tragedy, which saw at least 80 people burned to death, should lead to an end in the construction of high-rise flats.
Speaking at a conference on poverty reduction in London this morning, he said: “Tower blocks aren’t part of the housing culture of the United Kingdom. If you are going to build flats at all, [build] low-rise buildings.
“I have never come across a constituent who said to me, ‘I really want to live in a tower block.’”
Mr Duncan Smith added that unless we build hundreds of tower blocks, like Hong Kong or Singapore, high-rises will never make a major contribution to the UK’s housing stock.
Critics claim that as well as being potentially unsafe, multi-storey blocks of flats stop people feeling a sense of community in their local area.
Dozens of tower blocks are now being urgently investigated over fears they could be vulnerable to fire just like Grenfell Tower.
Mr Duncan Smith said that soaring rents and lower rates of home ownership were a major factor behind poverty and social inequality.
Discussing the problem of luxury homes which are bought by millionaires from China and Russia who then never use them, he said: “Deal with that by taxing them, New York does - I would slap a tax on houses left unoccupied.”
But he also slammed his former colleagues for hiking taxes on landlords, which “will mean there are fewer houses to rent” because buy-to-let properties are too expensive.
And he called for a new scheme to allow council tenants to buy a stake in their homes, giving them more security and freeing up cash for local authorities.
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Mr Duncan Smith pioneered welfare reforms under David Cameron, including the introduction of Universal Credit to sweep away the complicated benefits system.
But he stormed out of the Cabinet last year in protest at ongoing cuts to welfare.
