What is Grey Belt? 

As part of the Labour government’s pledge to deliver 1.5 million homes over the next five years, Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, has announced reforms which make “a significant step to getting Britain building again” and proposed a revision to the National Planning Policy Framework.  This included increasing the national housing target to 370,000 homes per annum, with a revised calculation for housing needs and subsequent imposed housing targets on local authorities.  In doing so they introduced the term ‘grey belt’ and suggested this should be a consideration for local councils.  

On 12th December the government published the new version of the National Planning Policy Framework. We asked our Head of Planning, Julian Sharpe, to give some clarification on this term, 'grey belt':  

In addition to general changes seeking to increase housebuilding, there is significant reform for development within the Green Belt utilising ‘grey belt’ land.  Requirements include that:  

• Development would not fundamentally undermine the purposes of the remaining Green Belt. 
• There is a lack of a five year supply of deliverable housing sites or where the Housing Delivery Tests were below 75% of the housing requirement over the previous three years.  Notably a number of Councils with fairly recently adopted plans will still be below the 75% HDT threshold.
• The development would be in a sustainable location.
• The development meets the ‘Golden Rules’ including 50% affordable housing in most cases, improvements to infrastructure and new and improved green spaces.

In terms of the speculation over what might be ‘grey belt’, this has been confirmed as: 

“previously developed land and/or any other land that, in either case, does not strongly contribute to any of purposes (a), (b), or (d) in paragraph 143.” Namely preventing sprawl, towns merging or the setting of historic towns.

‘Grey belt’ however excludes National Landscapes (formerly AONB), National Parks, irreplaceable habitats and designated heritage assets.

Whilst this may unlock the provision of some housing, including affordable housing, what impact this is likely to have on the contribution towards the housing target is yet to be seen, and undoubtedly will lead to a number of test legal cases we expect.  

If you are looking for planning advice and guidance, contact our expert planning team today.  



Photo by Sandy Millar on Unsplash