Research carried out for the BBC revealed that in 2013/2014, 5,607 approvals for building on green belt land were granted compared to 11,977 in 2014/2015.
Speaking to Radio 4’s File on 4 programme, housing minister Brandon Lewis said the decision to build on green belt land was up to local authorities.
“It is very much a matter of those local authorities. They are the best placed people locally, democratically accountable locally, to decide where is the right location for any development,” he said.
The government has focussed its attention on using brownfield sites to boost the stock of new homes. Following the election result the Conservatives announced plans to build 400,000 new homes on brownfield land. The government plans to fund this project by forcing councils to sell off the most valuable 200,000 empty homes from their remaining stock through the Right to Buy scheme.
A brownfield site refers to land which has been previously used for commercial or industrial purposes and may have been contaminated with hazardous waste from its previous occupants.
The government launched a consultation in January on how the country can build more homes on brownfield land. It said it wanted to see local development orders being used to put permissions in place on more than 90% of suitable brownfield sites by 2020.
