D66 has proposed building a new town on land reclaimed from the Markermeer with space for 60,000 homes to help solve the Netherlands’ housing shortage.

Party leader Rob Jetten has called for the “taboo” on building on green space to be lifted, in a shift from D66’s previous stance on nature conservation.

The Markermeer, between Amsterdam and Flevoland, is a protected nature area, but Jetten argued that reclaiming land could benefit the environment as well as providing space for housing.

“After the conservation association Natuurmonumenten laid the Markerwadden [a wetland nature reserve], it turned out to improve the water quality in the area and attract more birds,” Jetten said.

“A new island in combination with an extension of the Markerwadden could be deliver a win-win both for nature and for the housing shortage.”

The plan would cost an estimated €20 billion, with the new town provisionally named IJstad after the river that flows through the north of Amsterdam. Half of the money would be spent on an improved link between the capital and Almere.

But Jetten argued that the housing crisis would not be fixed with patchwork solutions such as “an extra street here and there”.

“The housing shortage is most acute in the Amsterdam region, where prices are unaffordable as well,” he said.

“Ideas have been around for years about a new link between Amsterdam and Almere. At the moment there is too little public transport and too many traffic jams.

“A new link would allow Almere to build a new suburb of 30,000 homes. The new island would be on the route. So this investment would solve one-tenth of the housing shortage.”