The government’s grey belt plan for new homes is “rushed and incoherent” and unlikely to impact wider proposals to boost housing, according to a House of Lords committee.
The housing department’s plan to label “ugly” parts of the green belt, grey belt land for development, is a key part of the government’s plan to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years.
Over the last five years, the country built around one million homes.
The government set local councils a combined total of building 370,000 homes a year under its revised National Planning Policy Framework in December.
But the Lord’s Built Environment Committee has written the Deputy Prime Minister and housing secretary Angela Rayner labelling the grey belt policy “ineffective” and undefined — with estimates of the number of homes that could be built on this type of land ranging from 50,000 to 4 million.
The committee says that the grey belt policy, proposed in July, was “introduced at the same time as many other planning policy initiatives, and the interaction of these policies is creating uncertainty for developers, landowners, and already overstretched local authorities”.
It adds that a barrage of other new proposals around housing outlined by the government “is likely to result in the grey belt policy having only a marginal impact at best”.
The move comes after peers launched an inquiry into Labour’s grey belt plan in September.
Committee chair Lord Moylan says: “The government’s policy has been implemented in a somewhat rushed and incoherent manner.
“The committee does not believe that it is likely to have any significant or lasting impact on planning decision-making or helping the government achieve its target of building 1.5 million new homes by the end of this parliament.”
Lord Moylan adds: “The government also does not seem to have any plan to measure progress or determine the success of this policy.
“Effective policy must be evidence based and be able to demonstrate its efficacy. Sadly, this is not the case here.”
A housing spokesperson says that the government has, “inherited the worst housing crisis in living memory”.
The spokesperson adds: “Our green belt reforms are informed through widespread consultation and will unlock more land for the homes and infrastructure communities desperately need, delivering sustainable, affordable and well-designed developments on low quality grey belt.
“This is just one of the ambitious housing reforms we have set out to solve the housing crisis and boost economic growth.”
