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Metropolitan Green Belt

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"Metropolitan green belt" redirects here. For other uses, see Green belt (disambiguation).
The Metropolitan Green Belt (outlined in red) among other green belts of England

The Metropolitan Green Belt is a statutory green belt around London, England. It comprises parts of Greater London, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey, parts of two of the three districts of Bedfordshire and a small area in Copthorne, Sussex.[n 1][1][2] As of 2017/18, Government statistics show the planning designation covered 513,860 hectares (1,269,800 acres) of land.[3]

History

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For some years after 1580 Elizabeth I of England banned new building in a three-mile wide belt around the City of London, in an attempt to stop the spread of plague. However, this was not widely enforced, relatively short-lived and it was possible to buy dispensations which reduced the effect.[4]

The concept was also inspired by those elsewhere in Europe, one being inner buffer zones and broad boulevards to separate non-ancient parts. One re-used extensive ramparts more like protective fields to serve old city walls, the Ringstraße, in inner Vienna before 1900 in which numerous parks have been laid out.

The first major proposals for a green belt were put forward from 1890 onward, but the first to garner widespread support was put forward by the London Society (LS) in its Development Plan of Greater London 1919. The LS, alongside the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), first lobbied for a belt (initially of up to two miles wide) to prevent urban sprawl, beyond which new development could occur; this was not realised. The great interwar Britain housing boom, from 8 million homes in 1921 to 11.3 million in 1939, saw most of today's Greater London apart from its very edge developed too densely to be conferred any near-contiguous green belt status. The great increase in private motor transport continued into the 1950s. Despite new roads and the London Underground, London traffic congestion and pollution was forecast to become highly problematic unless development could be encouraged outside of a contiguous capital city. A solution emerged from study of the localised preservation of the character of the couronne périurbaine (around-town crown) surrounding Paris, and a movement to expand instead satellite towns and other towns in France. In 1947, Jean-François Gravier successfully advocated to the French government major policies to reduce "regional disparity".[5] Labour's Attlee ministry acted similarly in Britain, first enacting the New Towns Act 1946 (9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 68) and issuing Circulars and Planning Policies for local government councils to implement including accelerating the designation of the Metropolitan Green Belt.

The first policy groundwork to the Metropolitan Green Belt was in Herbert Morrison's 1934 leadership of the London County Council. It was first formally proposed by the Greater London Regional Planning Committee in 1935, "to provide a reserve supply of public open spaces and of recreational areas and to establish a green belt or girdle of open space". The ongoing policy decisions made were approved and entrenched in an advisory Greater London Plan prepared by Patrick Abercrombie in 1944 (which sought a belt of up to six miles, 9.7 km wide). After passage of the Green Belt Act 1938, it took 14 years for the elected local authorities responsible for the area around London to define the area on scaled maps with some precision. Following the establishment of the belt around London, feedback being received, and statements and debates in the House of Commons, other authorities nationwide were similarly encouraged in 1955 by Minister Duncan Sandys to designate a belt of all undeveloped land. As to London it was idealised to extend to land not earmarked for building "7 to 10 miles deep all around the built-up area of Greater London".[6]

New provisions for compensation in the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 allowed local authorities to incorporate green belt proposals in their first development plans. The codification of Green Belt policy and its extension to areas other than London came with Sandys' annexed Circular 42/55 urging the Clerk of the Council of all local planning authorities (impliedly who had not done so already) to establish Green Belts "wherever it is desirable....(a) to check further growth of a large built-up area; (b) to prevent neighbouring towns from merging into one another; or (c) preserve the special character of a town."[7] This decision was made in tandem with the New Towns Act 1946 (9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 68), which accompanied other acts turning to commercial use or low density bomb-stricken parts of Inner London, providing new homes for residents in districts of Outer London which would accept social housing and founding the post-war new towns. Created under the New Towns Act outside of the belt were Basildon, Bracknell, Harlow, Hatfield, Hemel Hempstead, Milton Keynes and Stevenage. Much funding was outlaid in new roads, railway stations and social housing. Contrasting to these new towns such a degree of social housing was still as strongly resisted as possible in upmarket suburbs and most of the existing exurbs well-connected to London in the new Green Belt which almost unwaveringly elected majority-Conservative councils. Such private housing-dominant bastions of the Green Belt being Edgware, Amersham, Staines upon Thames, Surbiton, Sevenoaks and Epping.

In the 1938–1950s period, earmarking of the Green Belt intra-London infill areas continued to be earmarked for housing and those to "round off" the shape of London as official policy. A direct consequence was that when London was redrawn (namely from the 1889 County of London to Greater London) its area in 1965 was made five times greater.[8] This selective and encouraged urbanisation, coupled with the New Towns, ensured authorities did not need to expect a shortage of housing and were centrally lobbied (and in some cases also locally lobbied) to designate land as Green Belt in order to offset congestion and pollution consequent upon their policies of growth.

As the outward growth of London was seen to be firmly repressed, residents owning properties further from the built-up area also campaigned for this policy of urban restraint, partly to safeguard their own investments but often invoking the paradigm English thinking running from John Ruskin to at least John Betjeman, a scenic/rustic argument which lays the blame for most social ills upon urban influences and which leads few retired people to live in London. In mid-1971, mindful of the new towns in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, the government decided to extend the Metropolitan Green Belt northwards to include almost all of Hertfordshire. The Metropolitan Green Belt now covers parts of 68 different Districts or Boroughs.

Extension and reduction

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See also: Population of the United Kingdom, Conservation in the United Kingdom, Thames Basin Heaths, urban forest, Roads in England, and urban sprawl

London's green belt was extended after 1955, in places to a distance of 35 miles out. The belt is subject to minor annual variations, and covers an area approximately three times the size of London.

Extension has taken place to take in large parts of the Surrey Hills, Chiltern Hills and three of the areas known as various Wealds including Epping Forest, as such extension pre-dates certain largely duplicative protections which cover those areas, particularly Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Redesignation includes for transport or civil engineering infrastructure, housing and non-agricultural industry, retail and non-green or blue buffer leisure. In general agriculture and open-air leisure uses, including golf courses, and fresh water reservoirs (often used for sailing), can be designated green belt land.

All Local Authorities have the option of limited green belt land release in their Local Plans, according to legally necessary "exceptional circumstances" envisioned by the 1955 Act.[9][10][11][12][13]

Debate and controversy

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The London Society heightened debate about the city's green belt, in 2014 in its report entitled "Green Sprawl".[14][15][16][17][18] Other organisations, including the Planning Officers Society,[19] echoed with specific calls for a UK Governmental review and proposals to balance land release for with concepts to compensate habitat loss and mitigate pollution, restitutionally (as if never converted).[20][21][22]

The Adam Smith Institute wrote a paper under its core ethos of economic liberalism challenging the goals of nature and environmental protection groups who advocate greater urban density. The paper highlighted the Metropolitan Green Belt had land to build a million typical closer London fringe (low-to-medium) density homes within ten minutes walk (800m) of existing train stations, specifically circa 20,000 hectares (77 sq mi). It critiqued 10,000 hectares (39 sq mi) of golf course land.[23][24]

The Royal Town Planning Institute commissioned the Building In The Green Belt?[25] report to look into the commuting patterns in London's metropolitan green belt, to test the claims made in the Adam Smith report. Their study found only 7.4% of commuters, who lived near a railway station actually travelled to London by train on a regular basis with the vast majority (72%) travelling by private vehicle to jobs in their hometown and to other places not within London. Thus the proposal put forward in the Adam Smith report could result in 3.96 to 7.45 million additional car journeys per week on already congested roads around London. CPRE say it is a myth to connect green belts to rising house prices, since there is no clear difference in house prices between cities with green belts and cities without them, and both land and house prices are inflated by other factors such as investment.

A survey in 2016, by Ipsos Mori, found that many Londoners, particularly those who live in the most affected areas, think the trend towards ever taller, bolder skyscrapers has gone too far. More than 400 buildings of more than 20 floors in 2016 were tentatively proposed by developers in London.[26] Among respondents, six out of ten backed a limit on the height of new skyscrapers, with the same proportion backing restrictions on the number of buildings with more than 50 floors.[26]

Designated area

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Green belt land in north Havering

The table lists the areas designated as the Metropolitan Green Belt in 2014. Between 2009 and 2014 there was a reduction of 435 hectares (1,070 acres; 1.68 sq mi). By 2014 the only Inner London Borough to have had Green Belt, Greenwich, had lost its few acres of green belt designation.[27]

Every borough or equivalent district of the reduced counties of Surrey and Hertfordshire has Green Belt as does Bedfordshire, a county which has never contributed to present definition of London and has just 3 local government units. Four of five districts in Buckinghamshire, 4 of 6 in Berkshire, 9 of 14 in Essex, 7 of 13 in Kent, 18 of the 32 London boroughs, and 1 of the 13 Sussex districts/boroughs/unitary authorities has Green Belt.

Metropolitan Green Belt area by district, 2014[27]
Region Ceremonial county District Green Belt
Name Area ha Area ha %
East Bedfordshire Central Bedfordshire 71,600 28,220 39
Luton 4,300 140 3
Essex Basildon 11,002 6,950 63
Brentwood 15,312 13,700 90
Castle Point 4,508 2,750 61
Chelmsford 34,224 12,850 38
Epping Forest 33,899 31,680 93
Harlow 3,054 640 21
Rochford 16,949 12,570 74
Southend-on-Sea 4,176 610 15
Thurrock 16,338 11,920 73
Uttlesford 64,118 3,810 6
Hertfordshire Hertsmere 10,116 8,040 80
Broxbourne 5,143 3,310 65
Dacorum 21,200 10,690 50
East Hertfordshire 47,569 17,530 37
North Hertfordshire 37,540 14,250 38
St Albans 16,118 13,140 82
Stevenage 2,596 260 10
Three Rivers 8,880 6,840 77
Watford 2,150 410 19
Welwyn Hatfield 12,955 10,250 79
London Greater London Barking and Dagenham 3,609 530 15
Barnet 8,674 2,380 27
Bexley 6,056 1,120 18
Bromley 15,015 7,730 52
Croydon 8,700 2,310 27
Ealing 5,553 310 6
Enfield 8,220 3,060 38
Haringey 2,959 60 2
Harrow 5,047 1,090 22
Havering 11,227 6,010 54
Hillingdon 11,570 4,970 43
Hounslow 5,598 1,230 22
Kingston upon Thames 3,725 640 17
Newham 3,622 80 2
Redbridge 5,641 2,070 37
Richmond upon Thames 5,741 140 2
Sutton 4,385 620 14
Waltham Forest 3,882 840 22
South East Berkshire Bracknell Forest 10,938 3,840 35
Slough 5,400 860 16
Windsor and Maidenhead 19,843 16,480 83
Wokingham 17,898 2,900 16
Buckinghamshire Aylesbury Vale 9,027[citation needed] 4,800 53[citation needed]
Chiltern 19,635 17,380 89
South Bucks 12,350 14,128 87
Wycombe 32,457 15,630 48
Kent Dartford 7,277 4,110 56
Gravesham 9,902 7,670 77
Maidstone 39,330 530 1
Medway 19,203 1,340 7
Sevenoaks 37,034 34,400 93
Tonbridge and Malling 24,013 17,060 71
Tunbridge Wells 33,130 7,130 22
Surrey Elmbridge 9,630 5,620 58
Epsom and Ewell 3,407 1,560 46
Guildford 27,100 24,040 89
Reigate and Banstead 12,910 8,890 69
Runnymede 7,800 6,140 79
Spelthorne 5,116 3,320 65
Surrey Heath 9,510 4,190 44
Tandridge 24,820 23,300 94
Waverley 34,520 21,080 61
Woking 6,360 4,030 63
West Sussex Mid Sussex 33,402 20 0.06
Metropolitan Green Belt total 514,060

Notes and references

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Notes

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  1. ^ The adjoining counties fall in the South East and East of England regions which are not units of local government and have certain strategic central governmental uses.

References

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  1. ^ "Area of Designated Green Belt Land". London Datastore. Greater London Authority. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
  2. ^ "Mid Sussex Local Plan, May 2004"
  3. ^ "Local Planning Authority Green Belt: England 2017/18" (PDF). Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
  4. ^ Halliday, Stephen (2004). Underground to Everywhere. Sutton Publishing Limited. p. 118. ISBN 0-7509-3843-9.
  5. ^ Paris et le désert français, 1947
  6. ^ Annex to Circular 42/55 — the Statement to the House of Commons by Rt. Hon. Duncan Sandys, Minister for Planning on 26 April 1955
  7. ^ "Past, The last 80 years". Beyond the Green Belt. The Building Centre. 16 March 2016. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  8. ^ See the size of the County of London, 74,903 acres (303.12 square km); compare Greater London
  9. ^ National Planning Policy Framework 2018, paragraph 136
  10. ^ R (Hunston Properties Ltd) v SSCLG and St Albans City and District Council [2013] EWCA Civ 1610 (12 December 2013):
  11. ^ Gallagher Homes v Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council [2014] EWHC 1283. (Admin) (30 April 2014)
  12. ^ R(IM Properties) v Lichfield DC and others [2014] EWHC 2440 (Admin) (18 July 2014)
  13. ^ Plan Making Case Law Update published by and for the Local Government Association No. 5 Chambers Planning Advisory Service, Paper 4: Green Belt, November 2014
  14. ^ Manns, J., "Green Sprawl: Our Current affection for a Preservation Myth?", London Society, London, 2014
  15. ^ Prynn, Jonathan (9 December 2014). "'London's green belt isn't sacrosanct … we need to build homes on it'". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
  16. ^ "Peter Murray: Is London's Green Belt overprotected?". onoffice magazine. 4 February 2015. Archived from the original on 22 February 2019. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
  17. ^ Cheshire, Paul (22 May 2015). "Are they Green *Belts* by Accident?". CEP Urban and Spatial Programme Blog. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
  18. ^ Lambert, Mike (4 February 2015). "Why we need reform of the green belt in London and the South East". Homes For Britain. Archived from the original on 3 December 2017. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
  19. ^ "Planning for a Better Future: Our planning manifesto for the next government" (PDF). Planning Officers Society. March 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
  20. ^ "The Green Belt: A Place for Londoners?", London First, London, 2015
  21. ^ "Delivering Change: Building Homes Where we Need Them", Centre for Cities, London, 2015
  22. ^ "AECOM" (PDF). Aecom.com. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
  23. ^ "Press Release: New paper reveals where London's Green Belt must be built on to curtail housing crisis". Adamsmith.org. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
  24. ^ Tom Papworth. "a garden of one's own : Suggestions for development in the metropolitan Green Belt" (PDF). Static1.squarespace.com. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
  25. ^ Building in the green belt: A report into commuting patterns in the Metropolitan green belt (PDF), 15 August 2015
  26. ^ a b "Londoners back limit on skyscrapers as fears for capital's skyline grow". the Guardian. 27 August 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
  27. ^ a b "Area of designated Green Belt land 1 by local planning authority as at 31 March 2014" (XLSX). Gov.uk. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
  • Outskirts, by John Grindrod
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