Council responds to Government ‘Grey Belt’ land designation proposal

Waverley Borough Council has questioned how relevant the creation of a new Grey Belt category of land is for rural areas like Waverley.

The Government recognises that not all green belt land is of the same quality, and is proposing to introduce a new land designation of Grey Belt to cover sections of land that make a limited contribution to the purposes of the Green Belt, such as keeping settlements separate by safeguarding the countryside from encroachment.

A House of Lords Built Environment Committee inquiry is seeking to gain a better understanding of what Grey Belt land is, how it can contribute to housing targets and what sustainable Grey Belt development looks like. As part of this process, the committee invited interested parties to share their views.

In a written response to the select committee, Waverley Borough Council recognised that it was likely Grey Belt land could be identified at the edge of major urban areas, but stressed that the potential to deliver homes on Green Belt land in rural area like Waverley was extremely limited.

Councillor Liz Townsend, Waverley Borough Council Portfolio Holder for Planning and Economic Development said:

“Most Green Belt land in Waverley is protected by national designations that are, quite rightly, excluded from the proposed definition of Grey Belt. Currently, we have more than 88% of our Green Belt land covered by these protections, and this could increase to 93% if Natural England’s proposal to extend the Surrey Hills National Landscape goes ahead.

“The council is required to review the remaining 7-12% of Green Belt land in Waverley as part of preparing our Local Plan, but we already know that the majority of this land will be valuable green space we should be looking to protect.

“Our concern is that introducing a new Grey Belt land designation, unless properly clarified, will encourage speculative planning applications from developers that lead to costly planning appeals.”
 

The Government’s intention is for Grey Belt land to support housebuilding in poor quality green belt and help local planning authorities to meet their housing targets, but Waverley Borough Council has suggested there are wider issues that need to be addressed first.

Councillor Liz Townsend continued:

“The Government must look at the Standard Method of calculating local housing need as a matter of urgency because it is fundamentally flawed. By imposing unrealistic and unattainable housing delivery figures on our borough, it risks undermining our long-standing approach to protecting the Green Belt.

“The Standard Method requires us to deliver 1,374 new homes in Waverley each year, which would require over 27,000 new homes to be built in the next 20 years. That is 3.4 times more homes than the previous 20 years. Sustainably located sites for new homes simply do not exist for this scale of development in a rural borough that is protected by so many national and international designations.

“The one size fits all approach adopted by the Standard Method does not work for Waverley. Far from providing certainty, it imposes a housing delivery target that guarantees the council is unable to demonstrate a 5-year housing land supply, which passes control from the local planning authority to speculative housing developers.

“We have respectfully suggested to the committee that the Government’s proposal for a revised Standard Method warrants an inquiry in its own right, as it will have major consequences for the operation of the planning system in many rural authorities.”

To view Waverley Borough Council’s submission to the House of Lords Built Environment Committee visit www.waverley.gov.uk/consultationresponses.

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