May 2019
By Andy Smith
One of the lessons of last week’s local elections is that voters place greater emphasis on protection of the environment than on almost any other issue.
The ruling groups in local authorities that allocated Green Belt countryside and green spaces for housing development in their Local Plans have been decisively punished by the electorate for doing so.
Last Thursday’s council elections shows that where authorities had proposed development on Green Belt land, the ruling party in each case had been voted out of office or its majority substantially reduced. While in other parts of England, Brexit and other national issues may have determined the course of the recent elections, it is clear that in counties such as Surrey, Berkshire, Essex and Hertfordshire, which are within the London Metropolitan Green Belt (LMGB), the outcome of district and borough councils had been influenced more by communities’ anger at proposals to build housing estates on Green Belt land than by any other concern.
In Surrey, the Conservatives lost 117 councillors out of 1,269 losses in total, almost 10% of all Conservative losses in the 2019 local elections. The Conservative electoral performance was worst in the three Surrey districts where the Local Plans threatened Green Belt land for housing, namely Tandridge, Guildford and Waverley. In each of these areas, Conservatives lost control of the local councils to residents’ associations, local campaign groups and independent candidates opposed to the Local Plans and who were pledged to defend the Green Belt from development.
In Hertfordshire, the Conservatives lost control of another three district councils – North Hertfordshire, St Albans, and Welwyn & Hatfield – due to a groundswell of opposition to Local Plans proposing loss of Green Belt. In each of these districts there could have been even greater losses had the whole council been up for election.
Richard Knox-Johnston, LGBC Chairman, said: “The electorate have punished the ruling party in boroughs and districts where they wanted to build housing estates on Green Belt countryside. In the local elections, dozens of pro-Green Belt councillors were elected in Tandridge, Guildford and Waverley, overturning once-impregnable Conservative majorities. There is a powerful lesson here for all political parties in London and the Home Counties that tampering with the boundaries of the Green Belt will result in further losses of councils to independent and single-issue Green Belt campaign groups.
“Proposals to remove land from the Green Belt in order to build on it are always extremely unpopular, as people rightly value and cherish their access to countryside and open spaces. In the cases of Tandridge, Guildford and Waverley, it is clear that the Green Belt has become a major election issue, with profound consequences for the ruling party. The recent elections prove that the environment is a ‘hot issue’ in many areas. Local Plans should protect the Green Belt and should concentrate new development on urban and brownfield sites in need of regeneration.”