UK 'could run out of land by 2030'

[Still Waters]

The UK could run out of land to meet its growing demands for food, housing, green energy and environmental protection by 2030, according to a Cambridge University-backed report.

There could be a shortfall of as much as 6 million hectares of land - three times the size of Wales - to meet the requirements of a series of policy aims as Britain's population grows, the study found.

http://www.telegraph...-for-space.html

[Eldorado]

Use all the golf courses. There's about ten within a five mile radius of my home.

[dryrain]

We need to change our living habits. More high rise buildings less houses, smaller houses and flats. We need to realise that space is not a luxery we can afford anymore. Stop land being banked by business such as Tesco. Build smarter and be a lot less wasteful with our food production methods and eating habits

[Finity]

The UK has already run out of space really. We should have closed the boarders years ago. Ignore what the EU says, we are on the verge of leaving it anyway and it needs us more than we need it.

Why should everyone be coming over here when huge countries (e.g Portugal) are vastly underpopulated :/

Edited July 18, 2014 by Finity

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

Why should everyone be coming over here when huge countries (e.g Portugal) are vastly underpopulated :/

the Dole and the NHS.

[zebra99]

Blairs policy of allowing mass immigration is the ruin of this country.We need an Ellis Island in the Thames to handle the numbers...unfortunately we don't have the vast territories that the Americans had in previous centuries.

The whole infrastructure is crumbling under the numbers.All at the behest of a few politicians making the catastrophic decisions that politicians have always made over the centuries.

Look at the bursting populations of many countries where these people come from and you will see the future for this small island.

[spud the mackem]

If everyone in Britain moved to the Isle of Wight, they would have 3 square feet of living space, but Britain would be empty leaving loads of space for asylum seekers.Book your bit of the I.O.W. ...NOW,and you wont be disappointed.

[George Ford]

Blairs policy of allowing mass immigration is the ruin of this country.We need an Ellis Island in the Thames to handle the numbers...unfortunately we don't have the vast territories that the Americans had in previous centuries.

The whole infrastructure is crumbling under the numbers.All at the behest of a few politicians making the catastrophic decisions that politicians have always made over the centuries.

Look at the bursting populations of many countries where these people come from and you will see the future for this small island.

He was nothing more then a clueless puppet of the American governments, our loss is their gain. It seems to me sometimes that the people with no names within the EU/USA are also dead set against the UK. We keep getting random rulings like we MUST let 1 million Romanians into the the UK when not a single UK voter wants that to happen. I personally have started to listen to UKIP. They are NOT racist, just pro UK. There is nothing wrong with loving your country, people and culture.

Unfortunately they focus far to much on things like that and not the over all European economy and global market etc, to be allowed into power IMO. With better leaders and more forethought and broader goals then I think we will get the UK back into a country that we can be happy and proud of.

In these hard times charity starts at home, to get 10th generation born and bred British children out of poverty before giving free flats and houses to people that do not respect the UK or it's people yet are given a free:- house, schooling, food, washing machine, travel costs, gas/electric costs, health service, legal services etc etc. I would not mind so much maybe, but far to many refuse to embrace the English laws, language, rules and culture. They wish to bring their propaganda and hatred with them.

-edit-

and if you happened to be from the UK and set foot in the country they came from you can expect to be brutally executed. WE have spent many hundreds of years shedding the blood of the good, educated & hard working English people over and over again to finally find a precarious balance of power that all of us seem mostly ok with. People from foreign lands have to fight their own wars and not try and make insidious nest here instead.

___________

Rant over.

Edited July 19, 2014 by George Ford

[DecoNoir]

Use all the golf courses. There's about ten within a five mile radius of my home.

At least let me play the Old Couse at St. Andrews first!

[Doug1029]

A little land reform would go a long way. Break up those big estates and turn them over to people who will actively farm them. That will buy time to bring the population under control. This is one problem Britain can solve if it has the will to do it.

Doug

[bubblykiss]

Has the UK considered the benefits of building an empire?

Ship young men and women off to other parts of the world and such.

[Crabby Kitten]

Something needs to be thought of differently. Housing developments spread across green belt are often full of unecassary concrete space that are practical for humans but not to the wildernes. Big carparks and roads. Nature does have a way to grow up through houses and streets. Look at all the ghost towns of the world. Towns and cities returned to forest.

[freetoroam]

Has the UK considered the benefits of building an empire?

Ship young men and women off to other parts of the world and such.

Could do this with criminals, but then we will have no MP`s left.

[freetoroam]

I would like to say as an anti "concrete everything in sight" activist, I will fight to stop this happening, unfortunately I can not stop the breeding habits of the human race, and as long as we have the Jeremy Kylers with their 4 kids by 6 different fathers and the "tourists" dropping their offsprings here coupled with a British passport on tap, my cause is limited to just a few more years.

It seems that flooding may become a more regular occurrence here, so concreting the land will have some very adverse effects, but I am sure the councils and property developers know what they are doing ... surely they will ensure buildings here are as flood proof as their villas abroad?

I am moving soon to a less populated area of the UK, my husband calls it the "stern of the Titanic".

[spud the mackem]

Has the UK considered the benefits of building an empire?

Ship young men and women off to other parts of the world and such.

We have been doing this for the past 200 years or so,( Ref the 1st President of the U.S.A) to leave more space for the asylum seekers, but the Polish population are complaining that the Romanians are stealing all their jobs.

[:PsYKoTiC:BeHAvIoR:]

We need to change our living habits. More high rise buildings less houses, smaller houses and flats. We need to realise that space is not a luxery we can afford anymore. Stop land being banked by business such as Tesco. Build smarter and be a lot less wasteful with our food production methods and eating habits

Just take a look how that turned out in large portions of China. The end results aren't very desirable.

[Wickian]

Within the next 100-200 years we really need to start to seriously consider space/moon habitation, population control or the complete reversal of any kind of natural conservation efforts. There just won't be enough room for both our growing population and non-farm/cattle land.

Or maybe we can make use of the oceans and make sea cities.

Edited July 24, 2014 by Wickian

[dr no]

The royal family have quite a bit of land we could utilise if we get desperate

[freetoroam]

Within the next 100-200 years we really need to start to seriously consider space/moon habitation, population control or the complete reversal of any kind of natural conservation efforts. There just won't be enough room for both our growing population and non-farm/cattle land.

Or maybe we can make use of the oceans and make sea cities.

Population control is the only option which needs seriously looking at. In England we need to seriously advise people from certain parts of the world that if they want to keep breeding like rabbits, then its best not do it here, but this has already affected us as countries which have high population rates and where there is not enough food to go round, are being funded by aid from other countries, England is one of them.

We send aid to over populated countries struggling to cope and we also let them come here to get a better way of life and what do many of them do? still breed like rabbits, add them to our own Jeremy Kylers who feel they have a right to breed cos their forefathers paid into the system so they think they have the right to drain everything out of it.

The way we are going, coupled with concreting our land and the possible affects from future flooding, we are heading to be a third world country....I wonder how many countries will be willing to send us aid in the future, maybe the rich Africans and Indians will be willing to help.

As for building cities in the oceans, where are they going to put the water? not on the land!

when I look at certain African countries that after years after starving children and years of droughts, and civil wars, they still breed like rabbits, it just about relays the nature of humans, selfish...even to their own kind!

[spud the mackem]

Population control is the only option which needs seriously looking at. In England we need to seriously advise people from certain parts of the world that if they want to keep breeding like rabbits, then its best not do it here, but this has already affected us as countries which have high population rates and where there is not enough food to go round, are being funded by aid from other countries, England is one of them.

We send aid to over populated countries struggling to cope and we also let them come here to get a better way of life and what do many of them do? still breed like rabbits, add them to our own Jeremy Kylers who feel they have a right to breed cos their forefathers paid into the system so they think they have the right to drain everything out of it.

The way we are going, coupled with concreting our land and the possible affects from future flooding, we are heading to be a third world country....I wonder how many countries will be willing to send us aid in the future, maybe the rich Africans and Indians will be willing to help.

As for building cities in the oceans, where are they going to put the water? not on the land!

when I look at certain African countries that after years after starving children and years of droughts, and civil wars, they still breed like rabbits, it just about relays the nature of humans, selfish...even to their own kind!

How many Pakistani's can you get on a Narrow-boat, I passed one yesterday (about 55 ft long) with 6 adults 11 children all sat on the roof and the inside was full as well,it had about 3 inches free board..(you'll never walk [sail] alone.) It reminded me of the Indian Railways.

[freetoroam]

How many Pakistani's can you get on a Narrow-boat, I passed one yesterday (about 55 ft long) with 6 adults 11 children all sat on the roof and the inside was full as well,it had about 3 inches free board..(you'll never walk [sail] alone.) It reminded me of the Indian Railways.

Now I am scared!

[spud the mackem]

Now I am scared!

Hehe ,wait 'till you get to Burbingum.

[Myles]

Population control is the only option which needs seriously looking at.

when I look at certain African countries that after years after starving children and years of droughts, and civil wars, they still breed like rabbits, it just about relays the nature of humans, selfish...even to their own kind!

I think a few things could help curb the population growth. Offering free vasectomies is one. I think many people would take advantage of that. I would also offer jailed criminals a lesser sentence for getting a vasectomy. It wouldn't be much - If you are in year 4 of a five year sentence, you can get out 4 months early. Something like that anyway. Population control should be voluntary.

[Mr.United_Nations]

We need to build more flats that accommodate families and not just for 1 or two people. Flats and High rises are good when there is limited space

[keithisco]

Population growth rate in the UK is FAR more related to immigration than to Brits getting up to a bit of "nooky" If you suddenly (over 3 years is sudden) you find your population has swollen with the arrival of 600,000 Polish then that totally distorts the actually reproductive cycle of the indigenous population. That is just one nation that has decided to make UK it's home. Total population figures take little account of this, and there are very scant metrics that actually remove the immigration metric from the overall figure.

Free vasectomies were offered in India - didn't exactly work out there.

Certain African nations have the largest population growth figures in the world , but that is down to a complete lack of post working life support (pensions etc), high incidence of infant mortality, and an absolute dependence on children supporting older family members that are no longer able to work. If you bear 10 or 12 children in some of these countries then you will lucky if 50% of them actually survive beyond 5 years, but the cost of supporting the parents is shared between the surviving children. What they are incapable of understanding is that if 50% survive into adult hood then they absolutely MUST procreate at the same rate (each of them) to have support in later life. I don't see many African Nations stepping up to the plate to address this.

I know that I will face a tirade of anger but it has to be said - the more money that the W.H.O. spend on preventing disease, trying to combat hunger in African Nations, saving countless lives that would have succumbed to prevailing conditions, then the worse the problems in those very same nations will become. Yes, you might save a person from starvation but what happens when they are discharged from care - do they go back to the same conditions?