In many places, new homes are needed, but the only space available for building them is in the countryside. Some people believe it is more important to protect the countryside and not build new homes here. What is your opinion about this?

2023/12/30

In many places, new homes are needed, but the only space available for building them is in the countryside. Some people believe it is more important to protect the countryside and not build new homes here.
What is your opinion about this?

The first sentence in the prompt in this task feels like a trap, doesn’t it? It takes away our choice. The countryside is our only option to build houses. 
The claim that follows the first sentence is against this trap and contains three beliefs (tenets):  

1) protecting the countryside for its benefits
2) not building any houses there for its dangers to nature
3) the issue of a housing shortage – which seems to be ignored 

Our response should cover all these three areas. Obviously, the countryside is the closest thing we have to nature – it offers numerous benefits to tired and stressed city dwellers, not to mention its agricultural influence and significance in the food chain. 

Also, let us agree that we should build houses in the countryside. Will it solve the problem? What if the population continues to grow? Should we occupy more land in the country and build houses? How far can we go against Mother Nature? 

We should also consider that solving this problem needs more than this simplistic solution. We need to change our perspective on urban planning. The population is approaching 10 billion. So, our horizontal housing development may no longer be able to allow sufficient population density. We need a new way of urban development: Vertical housing, which allows economical use of land. 

🔵 Please do not forget that I am a writing teacher, not an urban planner. So, these ideas might be laughable to an actual city planner. Note that we only need relevant and supported ideas for a high band for the IELTS test.