Green belt carve-up sees more land than ever lost for homes as Prime Minister announces fresh house-building boom

  • Campaign to Protect Rural England shows nearly 10,000 hectares removed since 2012
  • 2017/18 saw largest release of green belt land with 5,000 hectares released
  • Report came a day after Prime Minister announced a fresh house-building boom
  • Move certain to lead to fears even more of the green belt will be swallowed up

A record amount of land was carved out and lost from the green belt last year, official figures showed yesterday.

An analysis of data by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) shows that almost 10,000 hectares have been removed by local authorities since 2012.

The year 2017/18 saw the largest release of green belt land to date, with more than 5,000 hectares being released by ten councils for building.

The report came a day after the Prime Minister announced a fresh house-building boom, with town halls given extra borrowing powers to build tens of thousands more council homes.

Prime Minister Theresa May annonced a fresh house-building boom at Tory conference this week

Prime Minister Theresa May annonced a fresh house-building boom at Tory conference this week

She told the Tory conference she would lift the cap on the amount councils can borrow against the income they receive from tenants’ rents.

The move is certain to lead to fears that even more of the green belt will be swallowed up to provide space for new homes.

Although the land has been released from the green belt, proposed developments still need to go through the planning permission process. 

But the CPRE said that, at present, there are plans submitted for 460,000 homes on land that is set to be released from the green belt.

Such land is some of the most profitable and desirable for developers due to it being ‘shovel ready’, surrounded by countryside and within commuting distance of major towns and cities.

This leaves councils to foot the bill for resulting infrastructure requirements, such as schools, shops and roads. 

Rebecca Pullinger, the CPRE’s planning campaigner, said: ‘National planning rules require local councils to show exceptional circumstances when they remove land from the green belt.

‘These statistics illustrate that, since 2012, such changes are no longer exceptional.

‘For too long housebuilders have been able to use land as a tool to manipulate and monopolise the market only to serve their own interests. 

'The Government must stop heaping pressure on councils to deliver unrealistic targets that result in the green belt being chipped away. Instead, developers should be held more accountable to deliver the homes that they have promised.

Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, pictured at the Leave Means Leave fringe event at conference this week, has called for more green belt land to be released for housing

Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, pictured at the Leave Means Leave fringe event at conference this week, has called for more green belt land to be released for housing

‘Building within or on land released from the green belt is not the solution: it results in low density, unaffordable homes out of reach of those who desperately need to get a foot on the ladder.’

Both Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss and prominent Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg have called for more green belt land to be released for housing. 

Mr Rees-Mogg described the housing shortage as Britain’s biggest challenge.

The CPRE is calling on the Government to follow through on its commitment to protect the green belt and develop clear guidance for local authorities on housing requirements to protect designated land.

There is currently enough brownfield land in England to accommodate more than a million homes, with almost three quarters of this in areas with green belt land.

The CPRE urged the Government and local authorities to ensure brownfield land is redeveloped before any more land is released from the green belt.

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman said: ‘The Green Belt is bigger today than in 1997. We are committed to delivering the homes our country needs but that doesn’t mean building all over the Green Belt.

‘That’s why we have strengthened Green Belt protection through the publication of our revised National Planning Policy Framework earlier this year.

‘Under this planning authorities have to demonstrate they have exhausted all other reasonable options to meet development needs before even considering changes to the Green Belt and then evidence exceptional circumstances to justify development.’

 

 

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