Green Belt housing development could solve housing crisis, report says

A report published by the London School of Economics (LSE) has recommended that new houses should be built on London’s Green Belt in a bid to alleviate housing pressures in the South East.

A 21st Century Metropolitan Green Belt advised that the development of the Metropolitan Green Belt should be replaced with the development of a limited number of corridors surrounded by ‘green wedges’.

The report advised that the first corridor could run out to Cambridge to test the feasibility of the approach.

Dr Alan Mace, assistant professor of urban planning studies at LSE and one of the authors of the report, said: “We have reached a point where we cannot keep on disregarding the Green Belt as an option for well thought out development. Brownfield sites simply cannot supply enough land to meet projected housing needs in London and the Wider South East.

People often look at the Green Belt and say, 'who would want to lose this?' but often they're looking at land that is protected in other ways, such as Metropolitan Parks or Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and this would not change.

“Some parts of the Green Belt are neither aesthetically pleasing nor environmentally valuable and these are the areas that should be looked at for potential development.”