Green Belt ‘being eroded at an alarming rate,’ says CPRE

Monday, 6 August 2018 00:01

The Green Belt remains under severe pressure, despite government commitments to its protection, according to a new report from the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE). CPRE’s annual State of the Green Belt report [1] highlights that there are currently 460,000 homes being planned to be built on land that will soon be released from the Green Belt [2]. Moving Green Belt boundaries when reviewing local plans makes it easier for local authorities to release land for...Request free trial

The Green Belt remains under severe pressure, despite government commitments to its protection, according to a new report from the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).

CPRE’s annual State of the Green Belt report [1] highlights that there are currently 460,000 homes being planned to be built on land that will soon be released from the Green Belt [2]. Moving Green Belt boundaries when reviewing local plans makes it easier for local authorities to release land for housing, but is only supposed to take place under ‘exceptional circumstances’. This strategic shrinking of the Green Belt, as a way of getting around its protected status, is as harmful as building on the Green Belt itself.

The report also demonstrates that building on the Green Belt is not solving the affordable housing crisis, and will not do so. Last year 72% of homes built on greenfield land within the Green Belt were unaffordable by the government’s definition [3].

Of the 460,000 homes that are planned to be built on land that will be released from the Green Belt, the percentage of unaffordable homes will increase to 78%.

CPRE warns that this release of land looks set to continue, as one third of local authorities with Green Belt land will find themselves with an increase in housing targets, due to a new method for calculating housing demand. The London (Metropolitan) Green Belt will be the biggest casualty [4].

Tom Fyans, Director of Campaigns and Policy at the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said:

‘We are being sold a lie by many developers. As they sell off and gobble up the Green Belt to build low density, unaffordable housing, young families go on struggling to afford a place to live. The affordable housing crisis must be addressed with increasing urgency, while acknowledging that far from providing the solution, building on the Green Belt only serves to entrench the issue.

‘The government is failing in its commitment to protect the Green Belt – it is being eroded at an alarming rate. But it is essential, if the Green Belt is to fulfil its main purposes and provide 30 million of us with access to the benefits of the countryside, that the redevelopment of brownfield land is prioritised, and Green Belt protection strengthened.’

There is currently enough brownfield land in England to accommodate more than 1 million homes [5]. CPRE urges the government and local authorities to ensure that this is redeveloped before any more greenfield land is released from the Green Belt. Local authorities with Green Belt land have enough brownfield land for over 720,000 homes, the report finds, much of which is in areas with a high need for housing and existing infrastructure [6].

In addition to a push for a genuine ‘brownfield first’ approach to development, CPRE are also calling on the government to:

retain its commitment to protect the Green Belt by establishing long-term boundaries
halt speculative development in the Green Belt
develop clear guidance for local authorities on housing requirements to protect designated land
support the creation of new Green Belts where local authorities have established a clear need for them

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

CPRE, State of the Green Belt 2018.

The number of houses being planned for land to be released from the Green Belt in local plans analysed in this research:

Date	Approximate number of houses proposed for land released from the Green belt
2009 (draft regional plans)	147,000
August 2012	81,000
August 2013	150,000
March 2015	219,000
March 2016	275,000
May 2017	425,000
June 2018	459,000

The table shows the number and proportion of affordable housing units completed on greenfield sites in the Green Belt between 2009/10 and 2017/18:

Completed units in the Green Belt	Total of housing units	Total of affordable units	% affordable
2009/10	0	0	0
2010/11	26	26	100
2011/12	53	38	72
2012/13	83	26	31
2013/14	537	182.35	34
2014/15	1169	336.8	29
2015/16	245	118.9	49
2016/17	664	231.9	35
2017/18	4973	1369.8	28
Total	7750	2329.75	30

The proportion of Green Belt released for housing is likely to continue to increase with the introduction of the new methodology for calculating housing need in the revised National Planning Policy Framework. Increases in housing will have a disproportionate impact on local authorities within the London (Metropolitan) Green Belt, with a projected average increase of 22% in housing need. This compares to an average increase of 8.5% nationally. The worst hit authority will be Epping Forest, with 93.5% Green Belt and an expected increase of 80% in housing need.

[Note: these calculations use the formula set out in MHCLG’s ‘Planning for the right homes in the right places’ consultation. However, there was an announcement alongside the new NPPF stating that the exact approach may change.]

CPRE, State of Brownfield 2018.

There is enough suitable brownfield land to provide a minimum of 720,000 homes (over 23,500ha) in local planning authorities with Green Belt land. Over 440,500 of these homes could be built within the next five years (from 163 local authorities with the data).

Case study:

Hillingdon, London, with 43% Green Belt land, has enough suitable brownfield land outside the Green Belt that is able to be built on within the next five years for over 4,200 homes, representing more than seven years of housing land supply. Yet despite this, development continues to go ahead within the Green Belt in Hillingdon. Over a quarter of new addresses built between 2013 and 2017 in Hillingdon were built in the Green Belt.

Green Belt, greenfield and brownfield definitions:

Green Belt is a planning designation. It is land around some of our largest and most historic, towns and cities, covering all land uses.

Brownfield, or previously developed land, is, generally land that has been built on before. A full definition can be found in the National Planning Policy Framework. Brownfield land can also be found within the Green Belt.

Greenfield land has never been built on before. Not all greenfield land is designated as Green Belt.

Reaction from Institute of Economic Affairs - Green Belt regulations stand in the way of young people getting on the housing ladder

EMBARGOED UNTIL 00.01 Monday 6 August 2018 |

Commenting on the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s latest report, which finds almost half a million houses are planned to be built on Green Belt land this year, the Institute of Economic Affairs’s Director General Mark Littlewood said:

"The only meaningful way to solve the issue of unaffordable housing is to liberalise the planning system and build more homes.

"The concept of the Green Belt is widely out of date, as much of the land protected by Green Belt regulation is not environmentally valuable or scenic in the first place. Over 35 per cent of London's Green Belt is intensively farmed agricultural land, yet there is opposition to transforming these sites into residential areas.

"In essence, we are prioritising the protection of dump sites over the opportunity for young people to get on the housing ladder.

"Since 1970, average house prices in the UK have risen by a staggering four and a half fold after inflation. No other OECD country’s experience has even come close. The UK’s housing crisis must be addressed, and even mild embrace of planning liberalisation is a step in the right direction."