Well, now we *really* need to talk about the Green Belt
“Now is the winter of our discontent
Made even worse by failing plans in York.”
Another year goes by, the world turns on its axis, and the lovely city of York fails to adopt a local plan.
Nothing new. As all good #planoraks know, York hasn’t had a plan since 1954. The year before the first national Green Belt policy. A simpler time. No mutant algorithms. No CIL. A happier time.
Anyway. Now, 2.5 years after York’s plan was submitted for examination, and a year on since the last examination hearings, the York Inspectors have had it up to here. They were promised more work from the Council to justify Green Belt boundaries. Well. That work never came. And now the Inspectors have decided the Council should give “serious consideration” to withdrawing the plan altogether.
The bad news doesn’t end there. Take a trip down to the Garden of England, and Inspectors have now recommended that Tonbridge and Malling withdraw its plan too. A duty to cooperate failure. Remember those?
Alright then. Starter for 10. Name 2 things York, Tonbridge and Malling, Sevenoaks, Tandridge, Chiltern and South Bucks, St Albans and Uttlesford have in common.
Clock’s ticking… [Countdown music]… Did you get it? Well…
They’re all Green Belt authorities, and
They all have local plans which have failed (or have been pushed very firmly onto the ropes) in the last year or so. With disastrous consequences for many, many thousands of people who need places to live and work in some of the most sustainable locations in the country.
This blog’s a safe space for #planoraks. We can be honest with one another can’t we? Well, ok then. Here it is: we’re not doing well at planning in the Green Belt. In fact, we’re doing very poorly at it. Plan after plan in the Green Belt comes asunder. I said in the Financial Times last month that we needed to have a frank, grown-up conversation about the future of the Green Belt.
Which needs to be part of a broader conversation about the future of strategic planning. But - if you can believe it - the importance of that conversation is even greater now than it was last month. Not only because of this endless cascade of failing Green Belt plans. But also because of the strange death of our favourite mutant algorithm.
You’ll remember our freshly revised housing needs formula. Which isn’t actually revised very much. It’s business as usual for the shires. And the shortfall is, we’re told, now to be made up by massive increases in delivery in England’s 20 largest towns and cities. For more on the selection of the cities, see Harry Bennett’s blog here. What does any of this have to do with the Green Belt? Everything.
The wonderful Catriona Riddell - veteran of these pages - has done what she calls a “quick and dirty assessment” of these 20 areas:
Do you get the picture? Most places the Government wants to increase housing delivery are:
Constrained by Green Belts; and also
Without any strategic planning mechanisms to review Green Boundaries properly.
So let’s be frank. If we’re to get anywhere in the vicinity of 300,000 homes a year - and at this rate we probably aren’t - well. We need to talk about the Green Belt. We really do.
And here’s a bit of decent news. We are going to talk about the Green Belt. Some of us, anyway.
If you’re about at 6pm on 20th January, come join me, Catriona, Crispin Truman at CPRE and the good folks at Civic Voice for a big conversation. Do register. It seems the very least we can do. To move the train down the tracks on this most challenging area of national policy. Have a proper conversation. It can’t hurt, anyway. Come join us.
In the meantime, stay safe and well #planoraks. And keep on planning.
