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Please select a letter above and a term on the left.
What is Green Belt?
Green Belt is protected from development and is designated around certain cities and large built up areas. It has the following aims:
- To check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas
- To prevent neighbouring towns from merging into one another
- To assist in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment
- To preserve the setting and special character of historic towns
- To assist in urban regeneration, by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land
Interesting statistics from the Institute of Economic Affairs
- The size of the Green Belt has more than doubled since 1979 - its total size growing from 721,500 hectares to 1,634,700 hectares
- This amounts to roughly 13 per cent of the land area of England, and covers one and a half times as much land as our towns and cities put together
- The designation of Green Belt land is not attributed based on environmental quality; rather, it effectively represents a form of 'discriminatory zoning', keeping people living in urban areas away from the Home Counties
- There is enough Green Belt land within the confines of Greater London - 32,500 hectares - to build 1.6 million average-size houses. Using a tenth of that land for building could produce 160,000 new homes - a significant response to the current under-supply of housing
