The running here has been made by a self-appointed pressure group calling itself Better History, formed in 2006 to advise the Conservative shadow education team.
Mary Creagh, the shadow environment secretary, said: we are concerned developers will cherry pick the most profitable land and we will see huge pressure for development in sensitive places.
That number is unlikely to shrink very rapidly, given the pressure on prices from a large "shadow" inventory of housing that is yet to hit the market (see chart) and the glacial pace of foreclosures.