How much green belt is required to meet the government’s housebuilding targets?

Throughout the general election campaign, the green belt was central to the debate about the housing crisis. The government has committed to building 1.5 million homes during the next parliament. As part of the means of achieving this, it has pledged to adopt a strategic approach to the use of green belt land as part of the delivery solution, including building on poor quality so-called “grey belt” land.

Moving the debate forward

In a recent report, Rethinking the Green Belt, Carter Jonas has moved the debate on a stage, by considering what land might be used and how it might be released.

The rhetoric surrounding the green belt can be powerful and politically charged. Take for example the common claim that building on the green belt amounts to “concreting over the countryside”. While some green belts contain larger proportions of environmentally protected or publicly accessible land, there is also a significant amount of land with little …