Fourteen experts have contributed to a new essay collection exploring new ways of looking at the Green Belt, in response to development threats

Monken Hadley Common, part of Barnet’s Green Belt

Experts from a wide range of fields have set out their visions of a positive future for the Green Belt in a new essay collection.

Perspectives on the Urban Edge is published today (Tuesday 17th) by CPRE, the countryside charity, in partnership with The King’s Foundation.

Drawn from worlds including law, agriculture, planning and conservation, the influential voices included in the collection have a range of views, but all are concerned that pressures from development risk losing Green Belt land that represents the “countryside next door” for 30 million people in the UK.

The urgent need to tackle the UK’s housing crisis has led some to call for the Green Belt to be given over to development, and the new Labour government has recently set out a series of planning reforms which include allowing development on areas of poor quality Green Belt land it calls “grey belt“.

CPRE has long campaigned for a brownfield-first approach to housebuilding, arguing that shovel-ready brownfield sites could accommodate 1.2 million homes in England alone.

Not every contributor to the new collection of essays opposes all development on the Green Belt. CPRE itself advocates for homes on previously-developed Green Belt land and “sensitive exceptions” where new developments are delivered “at a scale and cost appropriate to the needs of local communities”.

CPRE argues that the Green Belt, like the countryside as a whole, “should not be preserved in aspic”. All fourteen authors included in Perspectives on the Urban Edge agree that change is needed to bring the Green Belt, introduced in the 1940s to prevent urban sprawl, into the 21st Century.

CPRE vice president Fiona Reynolds writes in her foreword that better spatial planning and new, more collaborative ways of working are required to make sure the Green Belt is somewhere “nature can flourish, sustainable food can be produced and access for everyone can be encouraged”.

Among the contributors are Dieter Helm, professor of economic policy at Oxford University; Ben Bolgar, executive director at The King’s Foundation, Baroness Barbara Young, environmental campaigner and regulator; Vicki Hird, strategic agriculture lead at The Wildlife Trusts; and Patrick Holden, founder and chief executive of Sustainable Food Trust.

Roger Mortlock, chief executive of CPRE, said: “Instead of thinking about the Green Belt as a ‘blocker’, we should be celebrating what it can do for nature, farming and the wellbeing of millions of people up and down the country.

“The idea that building on the Green Belt will solve the housing crisis is a lie. We need ambitious targets for brownfield sites, more genuinely affordable and social rented homes that the market, dominated by a small number of large players, has failed to deliver.

“The countryside is working harder than ever to address the challenges our nation faces but we’ve got to start treating our land as the finite resource that it is. We need a strategic, cross-government approach to land use that will help the countryside provide food and energy security, nature restoration, climate change mitigation, new homes –and space for beauty, too.”

Ben Bolgar from The King’s Foundation added: “We’re delighted to have partnered with CPRE to produce this enlightening new suite of essays that analyses the often-complex interface between town and country. This intersection puts into sharp physical focus how best to treat the land with respect.

“The challenge of how to unite the two and ensure they are working together in harmony will be a defining factor in the success or failure of countryside planning over the coming years.”

Read Perspectives on the Urban Edge:
Visit cpre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/CPRE-x-Kings-Foundation-Urban-Edge.pdf

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