The government is pressing ahead with plans to build a new village of 6,000 homes at the lowest point in the Netherlands, more than six metres below sea level. The construction of Cortelande, in the Zuidplaspolder near Gouda, is one of five projects named by housing minister Elanor Boekholt-O’Sullivan in the latest stage of her national plan to build more than 400,000 new homes by 2040.