‘Grey belt’ plan will have limited impact on housebuilding, peers warn

The Government’s plan to make it easier to build on already-developed parts of the green belt is “largely redundant” and could have a limited impact on housebuilding, a Lords committee has said.

Under changes introduced by Labour shortly after the election, lower quality green belt land will be designated “grey belt” and released for construction as the Government seeks to build 1.5 million homes by 2029.

But in a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, the chairman of the Lords Built Environment Committee, Lord Daniel Moylan, cast doubt on how much difference the policy would make.

The letter follows an inquiry by Lord Moylan’s committee, and said the peers initially believe that the grey belt policy “could make a positive contribution to meeting housing targets in a sustainable way”.

But, he added, subsequent changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and other parts of planning policy were “likely to mean that the impact is, at best, marginal”.

Arguing that the policy had been “implemented in a somewhat rushed and incoherent manner”, Lord Moylan said changes to the NPPF “have now made the concept of grey belt land largely redundant as land will now more likely be released from the green belt through existing channels instead”.

Those changes include a new requirement for councils to review green belt boundaries and propose changes if they cannot meet demand for housing or commercial land through other means.

The committee said it was “difficult to see what the grey belt regime will add in terms of the ability to build on the green belt in light of this requirement”.

Peers also questioned how the Government would track the effectiveness of its grey belt policy amid uncertainty about the number of homes that could be built on such land.

Estimates range from 50,000 to four million, which the committee said “suggests that the potential impact of the policy had not been adequately assessed before it was announced”.

The committee went on to raise concerns about the impact of even a reduced affordable housing requirement on the ability of smaller construction firms to take on grey belt sites, and suggested local planning departments still lacked the resources to deal with the many changes to planning policy brought in by the Government.

While the peers welcomed the £46 million announced at the Budget to boost planning capacity, they said they were “concerned that the recruitment target of 300 additional planners is insufficient and unlikely to have any meaningful impact”.

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “We have inherited the worst housing crisis in living memory and are taking decisive action to deliver 1.5 million homes as part of our Plan for Change, including overhauling the broken planning system.

“Our Green Belt reforms are informed through widespread consultation and will unlock more land for the homes and infrastructure communities desperately need, delivering sustainable, affordable and well-designed developments on low quality grey belt.

“This is just one of the ambitious housing reforms we have set out to solve the housing crisis and boost economic growth.”