News
Just 1% of green belt land could deliver half of Labour’s housing target
Around 1% of green belt land could deliver 738,000 homes, almost half of the one-and-a-half million homes pledged by Labour.
According to research by Lomond, which analysed land usage in the green belt, the green belt covers around 16.4 billion square metres, equal to around 13% of England’s total land area.
Approximately 65% is used for agriculture, with 19% going to forest, open land and water, while 16% is classified as developed use for infrastructure like roads.
The report found that the average new home needs a land plot of around 222 square metres, so the green belt could be used to build 738,000 homes.
Lomond added that the average new-build house costs around £406,732, so this would improve the value of the property market by around £300.2bn. However, the firm said that it was important to note that a significant percentage aims to be affordable housing.
The South East has the largest green belt, making up 19% of the national total. Using 1% of the green belt in this area would be equal to around 137,514 new homes, which is the largest housing stock boost of all the regions.
Going digital
Sponsored by Halifax Intermediaries
This was followed by the West Midlands at around 119,149 homes, Yorkshire and the Humber at 117,838, the North West at 114,527 and the East of England at 105,401.
In London, although it only accounts for 2.1% of total green belt land, using 1% of this could lead to 14,662 new homes.
Earlier this week, deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said she would hand out mandatory housing targets to councils to support the delivery of 370,000 new homes.
She reiterated that Labour would prioritise building on brownfield and grey belt sites, the latter of which would involve a review of the green belt land.
Ed Phillips, Lomond’s CEO, said: “Building on the green belt is a contentious issue and quite rightly so, as nobody wants to see our green and pleasant land concreted over in order to build more housing.
“However, that’s not what Labour is suggesting, and the fact of the matter is that there is a great deal of green belt land that is wrongly classified and could be put to far better use.
“The intention to address this issue by creating the grey belt is not before time and, as our research shows, utilising just 1% of this wrongly classified land could go a long way in addressing the housing crisis and delivering the homes needed to help ease the supply and demand imbalance.”