Labour has announced five ‘golden rules’ for green belt housebuilding, including a commitment to free up “poor quality” ‘grey belt’ parts of the belt, while upping the amount of affordable housing each site should bear to 50%. The term grey belt refers to neglected areas such as poor quality wastelands and disused car parks that are in the green belt.
The rules are designed to defeat suggestions that the green belt is at risk from a potential Labour government as the General Election looms this year or early next.
Labour’s five ‘golden rules’ for the green belt are:
“1. Brownfield first: Within the green belt, any brownfield land must be prioritised for development.
- Grey belt second: “Poor-quality and ugly areas of the green belt should be clearly prioritised over environmentally valuable land in the green belt Poor-quality and ugly areas of the Green Belt should be clearly prioritised over nature-rich, environmentally valuable land in the green belt. At present, beyond the existing brownfield category the system doesn’t differentiate between them. This category will be distinct to brownfield with a wider definition.
- Affordable homes: Plans must target at least 50% affordable housing delivery when land is released.
- Boost public services and infrastructure: Plans must improve public services and local infrastructure, including more school places and new health centres.
- Improve genuine green spaces: Labour rules out building on genuine nature spots and requires plans to include improvements to existing green spaces, making them accessible to the public, with new woodland, parks and playing fields. Plans should meet high environmental standards.”
Reaction to the grey belt approach has been mixed. The National Federation of Builders says the policy is “A win for all parties which is why we support it,” while CPRE, formerly known as the Campaign to Protect Rural England, reckons “There are enough ‘shovel-ready’ brownfield sites in the UK for 1.2 million new homes – this is where we should start.
“We must also abandon the existing piecemeal approach and look at the Green Belt as a whole. The Green Belt needs to deliver affordable homes on brownfield sites, while today’s scrubland can become the woodlands and wetlands of tomorrow.”
Scrubland was identified as a particular opportunity for development by Lisa Nandy in June 2023.
The golden rules form part of a pledge by Labour to build 1.5 million homes over the five-year term of the next Parliament should it come to power. This is identical to the 300,000 homes a year target the Conservatives set themselves and have yet to meet.
