The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has today published its annual report, The State of The Green Belt 2018, which outlines that there are currently 460,000 homes being planned to be built on land that will soon be released from the green belt. 

Green belt land was first designated before the war and in several cases has not been reviewed for many years. In fact, Savills research on increasing housing delivery has found that in green belt areas local plans are predominantly produced more slowly and are typically ‘out of date’.

When reviewing green belt land, there are a range of social, environmental and economic considerations to balance with good planning practice. Better environmental sustainability is achieved when plans allocate the right development in the right places. It is worth remembering that green belt land is not about the quality of the environment, it is simply a planning designation designed to keep land open. There are many Sites of Scientific Interest (SSSI), Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and National Parks which fulfil environmental protection purposes.

Savills notes that the recent National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) revision is as much about making the best use of previously developed land and maximising densities. It seeks good design alongside meeting housing and development needs. 

However, there exists an insufficient amount of available previously developed land to meet anywhere near development needs. Savills Planning's most recent research highlighted the desperate need to tackle housing affordability in areas of the south and London, which will require a balanced mix of housing types and tenures. Whenever the difficult decision to release green belt land is made, it is simply more feasible to plan for balanced and mixed communities, which will deliver the right development as quickly as possible.

One interesting recommendation CPRE makes relates to strategic green belt reviews. Undertaking positive strategic planning that tackles both economic and housing needs should require strategic reviews beyond traditional local authority boundaries. What is needed are up-to-date local plans quickly, especially in green belt areas, which make the difficult decisions. That would be positive planning.

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