4 March 2018
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for London’s Green Belt has welcomed the Prime Minister’s speech this morning (4 March), in which she reiterated the importance of protecting the Green Belt, and is calling on the Government to lift the shadow that still hangs over the London Metropolitan Green Belt due to excessive and unsustainable housing targets and the lack of clarity in government guidance to local authorities.
Co-Chairs of the APPG, Crispin Blunt MP (Conservative) and Lord Rogers of Riverside (Labour) are urging the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities & Local Government, the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, to make unambiguously clear to councils that they cannot use the justification of ‘exceptional circumstances’ to allow developers to grab Green Belt land for market housing. They cite the Prime Minister’s statement this morning that local councils should not take the ‘easy option’ to earmark large Green Belt sites for housing development in their local plans, and that instead they should focus on increasing urban densities rather than sacrificing countryside or green spaces.