I seriously doubt the issue is developer profits, but NIMBYism instead.

The backlash to introducing even modest by-right zoning in the UK last year was immense. The UK's housing regulatory scheme is somehow even worse than California's, it's just that the demand isn't as high and so the crisis isn't as acute.... yet.

Developer profits as in, there is more to made developing on green, than there is developing brown.

There definitely is NIMBYism, but I'd say taht at least half the time there is a valid reason for it - usually the infrastructure is not going to cope with the developments, but then that is always promised to come after, you know, once they run out of money ;)

They’re surely not running out of money.

People tend to overestimate how much brown field land there actually is. And what does exist is often more suitable for commercial or industrial development anyway. A disused power station site (for example) could be better for a data centre, distribution center or another power station than residential housing.

Also, just because a parcel of land is green does not necessarily mean that it is a valuable ecosystem. Intensively farmed agricultural land can be degraded already. A well designed development will leave the hedgerows, introduce gardens and have wild areas. It can and should be better for wildlife.

You just have to drive around the SE for an hour or two to realise it's everywhere - massive developments in some places, virtually whole new towns, and where this is not permitted creeping development of every single tiny postage stamp of land on which planning permission can be gained. It breaks my heart. I remember when there used to be hedgehogs everywhere. These days, it's remarkable. Absolutely tragic. If the woke mob in this country genuinely cared about the environment (as opposed to merely using it as part of their 'nice totalitarianism' agenda e.g. BLM/eco/trans etc.) they would be fiercely anti-immigration. The fact they are not tells you all you need to know about the true agenda.

Driving through the south east is going to give you a very distorted perspective. Roads are busy and new development tend to be built around roads. Leave you car and walk a couple of miles and it can be completely different. The South East is also ringed by AONB, National Park and historic parkland that prevent development.

The bit about woke is a no true Scotsman fallacy. And it is ironic how you use the environment to push your own blinkered political agenda.

> AONB, National Park and historic parkland that prevent development

This simply is not the case - there is building throughout these areas, sometimes whole new towns. And I do walk. It's a struggle to get away from traffic noise unless one travels out of the South East.

> The bit about woke is a no true Scotsman fallacy. And it is ironic how you use the environment to push your own blinkered political agenda.

We can all throw slurs around, not sure it gets us anywhere in particular - though I'll note it does seem to be the first resort of the left.

I don’t know why you are complaining about the “woke mob”, this is entirely a Conservative party policy.