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Planning minister Nick Boles has called for a third more land to be developed for housing than is currently the case and has slammed modern housing developments as 鈥減ig ugly鈥�.

In an interview with the BBC鈥檚 好色先生TVnight, to be screened tonight, Boles compares the 鈥渞ight to a home with a little bit of ground around it to bring your family up in鈥� with other basic rights such as education and healthcare, and calls for more land to be opened up for development.

He says: 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to protect the greenbelt but if people want to have housing for their kids they have got to accept we need to build more on some open land.

鈥淚n the UK and England at the moment we鈥檝e got about 9% of land developed. All we need to do is build on another 2-3% of land and we鈥檒l have solved a housing problem.鈥�

Boles says the problem in the past has been modern housing, which is 鈥減ig ugly鈥�. 鈥淟and is expensive but to some extent [developers] are just lazy. They didn鈥檛 talk to local people or get involved enough. But also it鈥檚 just bloody expensive to build because land is expensive,鈥� he says.

鈥淭he built environment can be more beautiful than nature and we shouldn鈥檛 obsess about the fact that the only landscapes that are beautiful are open - sometimes buildings are better.

鈥淚 think everyone has the right to live somewhere that is not just affordable but that is beautiful and has some green space nearby.鈥�

鈥淭here鈥檚 a right to a home with a little bit of ground around it to bring your family up in.鈥�

Boles says part of his job is to address the arguments of those who oppose development in their area. 鈥淚t鈥檚 my job to make the arguments to these people [people who oppose development] that if they carry on writing letters their kids are never going to get a place with a garden to bring up their grandkids.

鈥淚 accept we haven鈥檛 been able to persuade them. I think it would be easier if we could persuade them that the new development would be beautiful.鈥�