Property Development: Green Belt
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure community involvement in decisions on the (a) designation and (b) development of grey belt land.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook
It is for individual local authorities to plan and make decisions regarding the locations of new development in their areas.
The amount of development that occurs in any given Green Belt will depend on local circumstances. Where a local authority proposes to alter its Green Belt boundaries through a Local Plan, the revised draft Plan will be created in consultation with the local community and submitted for rigorous independent examination by planning inspectors prior to its adoption.
Similarly, any planning application will be assessed in the light of policies in the adopted Plan, of relevant policy in the National Planning Policy Framework, and of all other factors the decision-makers find relevant to a particular planning case and its location, including the evidenced concerns of local people.
We have been clear that development on grey belt must be sustainable and we have introduced new Golden Rules to ensure that development benefits communities and nature. Our reforms to Green Belt policy do not lessen existing policy obligations to protect designated areas and minimise impacts on biodiversity.
Transitional arrangements for implementing policies in the revised National Planning Policy Framework are set out in Annex 1 of it.
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