Pressure on the Greenbelt.

What is Greenbelt

The Green Belt in UK planning serves as a method to manage urban growth and protect rural landscapes. The overarching goal is to maintain a clear distinction between urban and rural areas. This openness is both visual and spatial, not just the absence of buildings.I

Its five core purposes, as defined in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), are:

1. Check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas.
2. Prevent neighbouring towns from merging into one another.
3. Safeguard the countryside from encroachment.
4. Preserve the setting and special character of historic towns.
5. Encourage urban regeneration by promoting the reuse of derelict and other urban land.

A Green Belt designation restricts most forms of development unless exceptional circumstances are demonstrated. Local authorities must explore all other options—like brownfield sites—before considering Green Belt release.

A misunderstanding of the Green Belt is that it is an environmental policy. As can be seen from the five purposes it is fundamentally a land use designation for the prevention of urban sprawl.  It was never designed to manage environmental matters. 

This means that any environmental advantages, from Greenbelt are unintended consequences rather than the main objectives of the Green Belt policy.

While often seen as a brake on development, the Green Belt also offers public benefits:

• Access to nature and recreation
• Agricultural land for local food production
• Climate resilience through woodland and floodplain protection.

Greybelt.

The revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) 2024 describes a new definition of land ‘Grey Belt’ which is land currently in the Greenbelt that can be considered as 'previously developed land and/or any other land that, in either case, does not strongly contribute to any of three purposes (1), (2), or (4)

1/ Check the unrestricted sprawl 

2 / Prevent neighbouring towns from merging 

4/ Preserve the setting and special character 

‘Grey Belt’ also excludes land allocated as National Landscape (previously AONB) and Sites of Special Scientific Interest etc.

The  government proposes the use of Grey Belt land for development to address the housing shortage and meet the growing demand for affordable homes. The aim is to balance the need for new housing with the preservation of valuable green spaces by identifying and reclassifying areas within the Green Belt that are less critical to its primary purposes.

The tricky part is that at a strategic scale, nearly all Green Belt land makes a significant contribution to at least one of the three key purposes. 

Additionally, there is the potential for subjective assessments of what constitutes a ‘strong contribution’ to these three purposes.  

In terms of what new development in the Green Belt will look like, the government has introduced some golden rules that major development needs to adhere to. This includes:

1. provision of affordable housing that is set at a higher level than for regular non-Green Belt land, with at least 50% being affordable unless this makes the development unviable. Until such policies are in place, the requirement should be 15 percentage points higher than the highest existing affordable housing requirement, capped at 50%. If no such requirement exists, a default of 50% affordable housing should apply.
2. necessary improvements to local or national infrastructure.
3. the provision of new, or improvements to existing, green spaces that are accessible to the public. New residents should be able to access good quality green spaces within a short walk of their home, whether through onsite provision or through access to offsite spaces.

The golden Rules appear somewhat vague except for affordable dwellings.  And one must be cycnical as to the ability to improve infrastructure.

It is also argued that we won’t see tall buildings appearing in the countryside. A key priority of the government's Green Belt reform is to release land that is unworthy of its protected status and continue to safeguard land that plays an important role in containing urban sprawl.  One must also be cynical of this argument as for example the Woking developments, despite being outside the borough, has a influence on the landscape.

Guildford and the Greenbelt.

Guildford Borough has a total area of approx. 27,100 hectares of which 20,040 Hectares (74%) is designated as Greenbelt. A significant proportion of the Greenbelt is also further protected as it has environmental significance so is covered by Surrey Hills National Landscape, Sites of Special Scientific interest SSI’s   

Guildford contains the largest area of Greenbelt within the 11 surrey councils, it has played a significant role in shaping development strategy, protecting countryside from urban sprawl, and preserving the character of villages and landscapes.

According to some planning consultants a substantial area of Green Belt could be reclassified as Grey Belt e.g. LandTech suggest 7,325 Hectares could be recalssified. 

Guildford Borough in the Local Plan: Strategy and Sites (LPSS), adopted April 2019, has a plan to supply 562 dwellings per annum.  From identified sites there was a land supply to deliver this over 5.66 years.

From 1 April 2025 which is after the LPSS’s fifth anniversary the next five-year housing land supply figure has to be applied. This needs to be assessed against the local housing need figure calculated using the standard method as set out in the National Planning Practice Guidance. This is currently calculated as 1,155 dwellings per annum  (See GBC Statement).

Guildford Borough Council (GBC) last update on the greenbelt appears to date from 2013 and was used to form part of the evidence for the LPSS 2019.  The Study did produce a map (See Link) of potential sites in the borough some of which were included in the local plan.

The documents can be found here. 

The council has also produced a Supplementary Planning Document for the Greenbelt it assumed this will need updating to encompass the revised NPPF.  See SPD Here

The Future.

The local plan update will include a revised Greenbelt boundaries and identification of greybelt land as required by government planning policy.  This my take a couple of years to complete. 

Developers are now proposing schemes arguing for Greybelt status. An example is the site proposed by Taylor Wimpey at Flexford to develop housing on approx. 60HA’s of land to the North West of Wanborough Station. Details as far as they are known are at this link.