Britain to build 17 towns to ease housing squeeze

London

BRITAIN'S government announced plans on Monday to build 17 new towns and villages across the English countryside in a bid to ease a chronic housing shortage.

The new "garden" communities - from Cumbria in the north to Cornwall on England's southern-most tip - would be part of a scheme to build up to 200,000 new homes, housing and planning minister Gavin Barwell said in a statement.