CIC has set out its view on the proposed release of so-called grey belt land in a response to an inquiry by the House of Lords Committee for the Built Environment.
The CIC submission points out that many CIC members have taken the view that a review of green belt policy is long overdue in the context of needing to ramp up house building, and that some of this land should no longer be viewed as sacrosanct.
However, the submission argues that the piecemeal approach being proposed by Government in the revised National Planning Policy Framework, coupled with such an ill-defined concept as ‘grey belt’, is not the best way to approach the issue of development on green belt land.
The submission goes on to acknowledge that the idea of ‘grey belt’ suggests a middle ground between preserving large swathes of green belt and building more homes, especially in areas where land might be underused or not environmentally significant, or developed previously.
However, unless CIC’s view is that unless this land is carefully defined and considered in the context of what the green belt has been created to preserve, it could result in communities being sited in inappropriate places, and lacking the necessary infrastructure to make them sustainable – in other words, poorly planned urban sprawl.
The full submission can be viewed here.
