A radical shift in planning policy, provides immediate opportunities both for promoting sites for consideration in Green Belt reviews and for advancing development proposals in the Green Belt – prompting the question – How Grey is your Green Belt?
Green Belt policy in this country has remained unchanged for many years with the “very special circumstances” test for “inappropriate development” being a very high bar to meet. With most development proposals in the Green Belt attracting a high degree of public opposition, the task of reviewing the national policy to make it more fit for purpose has been a thistle too thorny to grasp for previous governments. However, faced with a severe housing shortage and the immense task of seeking to deliver 1.5m homes, plus stimulating economic growth, the Labour mantra of “build, build, build” has resulted in a radical overhaul of Green Belt policy as set out in the December 2024 NPPF revisions. This was followed at the end of February with updated Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) which elaborates on the new NPPF policy.
Together these documents very significantly widen the scope for development of sites that are currently in the Green Belt, both by requiring local authorities to undertake Green Belt reviews to identify sites for release where needed to meet housing and economic needs, and also by setting out a revised approach to assessing proposals for development on sites still within the Green Belt. The latter means that there is now far wider scope for development to be deemed “not inappropriate”. The most significant change is the introduction of the concept of “grey belt”. This is a subset of Green Belt where controls on development are significantly loosened if specific criteria are met.
The Newmark Planning and Development team can advise on all of the above matters, so please do contact us if you have any questions.
