Navigating the Green Belt

Since the National Planning Policy Framework was published in 2012, the UK government has been consistent in its approach to getting the country building and stimulating the economy. The White Paper titled ‘Fixing our broken housing market’ looked at the constraints on bringing development forward and asked a number of questions in relation to the delivery of new sites for housing. The general approach was to make more efficient use of brownfield land, but other proposals need to be considered, including a review of the Green Belt boundaries. There is a possibility that the Green Belt, so often held as sacrosanct, may be reviewed by current or successive governments to provide land to deliver new housing. The paper explores the role of planning in providing houses and questions why the steer of councils from providing a development control role to a development management role is not being reflected in decision making. As councils have their budgets cut, will the strain of demand result in more applications being decided by appeal and are the government’s ambitions unrealistic? The paper concludes that the political landscape could have a very important influence on planning policy over the next few years and explains how this could be used to the advantage of applicants.