'Rushed and incoherent' grey belt won't help Government meet housing targets, say peers

The House of Lords built environment committee has written to the Secretary of State for Communities, Housing and Local Government Angela Rayner, saying that the policy is unlikely to make any significant difference to the number of new homes that can be built.

The committee, chaired by Conservative peer Daniel Moylan, launched an inquiry in November, after the policy was announced in a draft planning framework in July.

Lord Moylan said the committee launched the inquiry because it believed the new category could make a positive contribution to meeting housing targets.

But he said: "The Government’s policy been implemented in a somewhat rushed and incoherent manner.

"The committee does not believe that it is likely to have any significant or lasting impact on planning decision-making or helping the Government achieve its target of building 1.5 million new homes by the end of this parliament."

The committee said the original idea of making grey belt land a distinct category, and highlighting that it made a limited contribution to the original green-belt principles, might have helped mitigate local opposition to such development.

But the Government introduced an updated plan in December, which included a requirement for local authorities to review green belt boundaries and propose alterations if they were not able to meet government housing targets. 

"The revisions it has made to the framework have now made the concept of grey belt land largely redundant as land will now be more likely to be released from the green belt through existing channels instead," Lord Moylan said.

He also said the Government did not seem to have any plan to measure progress or determine the success of this policy. 

"Effective policy must be evidence based and be able to demonstrate its efficacy. Sadly, this is not the case here.”

The report said even before the revised plan was published, there was significant uncertainty about how many homes could actually be built on grey belt land.

"Estimates ranged from as low as 50,000, to as high as four million,"  it added.

"This uncertainty is compounded by the fact that the Government does not have a clear plan to track the progress and assess the effectiveness of its new policies."

It accused the Government of failing to understand the difficulties of introducing several planning policies at the same time. He feared this would compromise its ability to deliver any of its policies in a coherent way.

The Government's latest housing targets propose an extra 1,462 homes are built in Dudley, another 518 in Cannock Chase, 745 in Lichfield, 1,346 in Sandwell, and 651 in South Staffordshire. It proposes an extra 751 homes in Stafford, 1,451 in Walsall, and 1,086 in Wolverhampton. Wyre Forest has been earmarked for 582 homes, while Bromsgrove is set to get an extra 713.

The committee said grey-belt sites had the potential to support small- and medium-sized housebuilders as the smaller size of some grey belt sites would be less economically attractive to larger builders. 

However, the affordable housing requirement, although less rigid than the original proposal, still made it financially difficult for smaller firms.

The committee voiced  concern that, given the wide-ranging changes proposed, that local planning departments would lack the resources and expertise to deliver change at the pace demanded of them. 

The committee welcomed the extra money announced in the autumn budget for local authorities to recruit 300 additional planners, but said this would not be enough to make a meaningful impact.

It added that the concept of grey-belt land could have the undesirable effect of encouraging ad hoc and speculative applications for development on land within the green belt, contrary to the Government’s intention that such land should be released in a planned and strategic manner.