Labour calls to build on green belt land

Labour calls to build on green belt land

0:03 AM, 18th May 2023, About 12 months ago 1

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Labour is backing green belt developments to help solve the housing crisis.

In an interview with the Times, Keir Starmer said he wants to relax planning restrictions and allow more homes to be built on the green belt.

According to new research by Searchland just 1% of green belt land could deliver over 738,000 homes.

‘Important for local areas to have the power to decide where housing is going to be’

Mr Starmer told The Times that under the current system, some developments are for “expensive executive housing” that might not suit local needs.

“Very often the objections that people have to house building on the green belt are valid because the control by landowners and developers means that the houses are proposed in areas where it’s quite obvious that there’s going to be a local concern.”

“Give local authorities, more power to decide where it will be and you alleviate that problem. So, it’s not as binary or straightforward as ‘green belt, not green belt’.”

He added: “We need to have that discussion [about building on the green belt]. But it cannot be reduced to a simple discussion of will you or will you not build on the green belt. This is why it’s important for local areas to have the power to decide where housing is going to be.”

Green belt land has been successfully reclassified to provide much-needed homes

Co-founder and CEO of Searchland, Mitchell Fasanya said: “The development of green belt land is an unpopular solution, largely due to the misconception that it involves concreting over areas of outstanding natural beauty.

“The reality is that there is a great deal of green belt that simply isn’t classified correctly and the green belt itself is actually a buffer between urban sprawl and the countryside.

He added: “There have been recent examples whereby green belt land has been successfully reclassified to provide much-needed homes and it really does beg the question, why does the government remain so intent on ignoring a solution that is staring them in the face?”

South East is home to the greatest level of green belt property development potential

The latest research by Searchland reveals the South East is home to the greatest level of green belt property development potential, with the region home to 18.6% of England’s total green belt.

Developing on just 1% of this green belt would enable house builders to deliver 137,581 new homes with a total market value of £72bn.

According to data, developing just 1% of green belt land across the West Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber, the North West and East of England would also enable the delivery of more than 100,000 new homes in each region

The full Times article can be read here  (paywall)


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Comments

Arthur Oxford

9:51 AM, 18th May 2023, About 12 months ago

The power of the house-building lobby never ceases to amaze me, but given the amount of builder/developer donations that goes into the various political parties, then I suppose I shouldn't! My question would be, as there are over a million homes already with planning permission that haven't been built by developers, how about Keir Starmer concentrates on eliminating "land banking", rather than adding to the disgusting urban sprawl that the Greenbelt was designed to prevent.

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