DTC........I would imagine that some of those extra people will be retirees from wealthier parts of Britain. People have been retiring to the South West for many years...probably started when the railways first got down there, in the 1870's if my memory serves me right. But there has yet to a trend for stockbrokers from Surrey retiring to Merthyr Tydfil !
There are some on here that will blame immigration for all of Britain's ills. Of course some of the pressure on housing is down to an increased level of immigration but the whole picture is much more complicated. Every time there is a divorce, another home is required.
We certainly need more home's but not more expensive "executive" housing...we need more affordable homes for rent, and that means new Council Housing. Council Housing that can't be sold off in a few years but kept as a intrinsic part of our housing stock. We managed to build 100,000's of new homes in the immediate post-war period ( Homes for returning Heroes, as I recall ) And we can do this again, if only there was the political will to do so.
I have said before that green belt isn't sacrosanct. Anyway "green belt"is defined differently in different parts of the country. Brown field sites are also important. Only this morning the Government made a case for knocking down old-fashioned and cramped prisons and using the freed-up land for building.
But I will take a bet that this new building land isn't used for affordable, rented housing !