Fourteen experts from a wide range of
fields have set out their visions of a positive future for the
Green Belt in a new essay collection. Perspectives on the Urban Edge is published today by
CPRE, the countryside charity in partnership with The King's
Foundation.
Drawn from worlds including law,
agriculture, planning and conservation, these influential voices
have a range of views.
Yet all are concerned that pressures
from development risk losing Green Belt land that represents the
countryside next door for 30 million people in the
UK.
The urgent need to fix the UK's
housing crisis has led some to call for the Green Belt to be
given over to development. CPRE has long campaigned for a
brownfield-first approach to housebuilding, arguing that we
should make use of the shovel-ready brownfield sites that could
accommodate 1.2 million homes in England alone.
Not every contributor to the new
collection of essays opposes all development on the Green Belt.
CPRE itself advocates for homes on previously developed Green
Belt land and sensitive exceptions where new developments are
delivered at a scale and cost appropriate to the needs of local
communities.
The Green Belt, like the countryside
as a whole, should not be preserved in aspic. All fourteen
authors agree that change is needed to bring the Green Belt,
introduced in the 1940s to prevent urban sprawl, into the 21st
century.
As CPRE vice president Fiona Reynolds
writes in her foreword, better spatial planning and new, more
collaborative ways of working are required to make sure the Green
Belt is somewhere 'nature can flourish, sustainable food can be
produced and access for everyone can be
encouraged'.
The contributors to the new
collection of essays are:
Dieter Helm, professor of economic
policy,
Oxford University
Ben Bolgar, executive director –
projects team, The King's Foundation
Kim Wilkie, strategic and conceptual
landscape consultant
Baroness Barbara Young, environmental
campaigner and regulator
Alan Carter, chief executive, The Land
Trust
James Alcock, chief executive,
Plunkett UK
Christopher Boyle, KC, Landmark
Chambers
Gail Mayhew, managing director, BCP
FuturePlaces
Vicki Hird, strategic agriculture
lead, The Wildlife Trusts
Mark Walton, director, Shared
Assets
Patrick Holden, founder and chief
executive, Sustainable Food Trust
Dr Wei Yang, chair, Yang &
Partners and CEO, Digital Task Force for Planning
Maddy Longhurst, community coordinator
and campaigner, Urban Agriculture Consortium, Constructivist and
Tiny House Trust Bristol
Roger Mortlock, chief executive, CPRE,
the countryside charity
Roger Mortlock, chief
executive, CPRE said: ‘Instead of thinking about the Green Belt as a ‘blocker',
we should be celebrating what it can do for nature, farming and
the wellbeing of millions of people up and down the
country.
‘The idea that building on the Green
Belt will solve the housing crisis is a lie. We need ambitious
targets for brownfield sites, more genuinely affordable and
social rented homes that the market, dominated by a small number
of large players, has failed to deliver.
‘The countryside is working harder
than ever to address the challenges our nation faces but we've
got to start treating our land as the finite resource that it is.
We need a strategic, cross-government approach to land use that
will help the countryside provide food and energy security,
nature restoration, climate change mitigation, new homes –and
space for beauty, too.'
Ben Bolgar, executive director
– projects team, The King's Foundation said:
‘We're delighted to have partnered
with CPRE to produce this enlightening new suite of essays that
analyses the often-complex interface between town and country.
This intersection puts into sharp physical focus how best to
treat the land with respect.
‘The challenge of how to unite the two
and ensure they are working together in harmony will be a
defining factor in the success or failure of countryside planning
over the coming years.'
ENDS
A PDF of Perspectives on
the Urban Edge can be
accessed here.
