UK Edition
Green belt disappearing at 'alarming rate' as change in planning rules sees loss of '5,000 football pitches' of land
The green belt is disappearing at an “alarming rate” with the equivalent of 5,000 football pitches lost because of a relaxation of planning laws, a report warns today.
Developers are being allowed to “gobble up” green belt land as local authorities release it for house building to meet Government targets for new homes, the report says.
The situation is set to get worse, according to the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) with 460,000 homes currently planned for land which will be released from the green belt.
The charity claims that losing green belt land is unnecessary because brownfield land, which has previously been used for housing or industry, could accommodate one million homes in England.
The CPRE report said the Government was “failing in its commitment to protect the green belt” and urged ministers to prioritise brownfield land for development.
The charity said 72 per cent of homes being built on released green belt land were not classed as affordable, with that proportion set to rise to 78 per cent for the 460,000 homes currently planned.
Tom Fyans, CPRE's director of campaigns and policy, 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."
As recently as 2010/11, there was no net loss of green belt land in England, but the introduction of a new National Planning Policy Framework in 2012 heralded the start of a sudden erosion of the green belt.
Between 2011/12 and 2016/17 a total of 4,840 hectares of green belt was lost, with one hectare being roughly equivalent to the size of a football pitch.
England’s green belt exists around 15 urban “cores” including London, Birmingham and a combined north west core that includes Liverpool and Manchester. The total area of designated green belt currently stands at 1.6 million hectares.
However, 37 local authorities have redesignated green belt land for development in the past six years.
The Government said the green belt is around 30,000 hectares larger than in 1997 and councils can only alter its boundaries in exceptional circumstances.
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman said: "We are clear that building the homes our country needs does not mean tearing up our countryside.
"Last year the number of new homes built was the highest in a decade, and only 0.02 per cent of the green belt was developed for residential use.
"We are adding more certainty to the planning system and our new planning rulebook strengthens national protections for the green belt, and says that councils may only alter boundaries in exceptional circumstances once they have looked at all other options."