Metropolitan Green Belt

The Metropolitan Green Belt among other green belts of England.

The Metropolitan Green Belt is a statutory green belt around London, England. It includes designated parts of Greater London and the surrounding counties of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey in the South East and East of England regions.^[1]

History

The term emerged from continental Europe where buffer zones and broad boulevards were increasingly used to separate new development from the centre of historic towns; most notably the Ringstraße in Vienna. Various proposals were put forward from 1890 onwards but the first to garner widespread support was put forward by the London Society in its "Development Plan of Greater London" 1919. Alongside the CPRE they lobbied for a continuous belt (of up to two miles wide) to prevent urban sprawl, beyond which new development could occur.

Implementation of the notion dated from 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". It was again included in an advisory Greater London Plan prepared by Patrick Abercrombie in 1944 (which sought a belt of up to six miles wide). However, it was some 14 years before the elected local authorities responsible for the area around London had all defined the area on scaled maps with some precision (encouraged by Duncan Sandys to designate a belt of some 7–10 miles wide).

New provisions for compensation in the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 allowed local authorities around the country 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 the historic Circular 42/55 inviting local planning authorities to consider the establishment of Green Belts. This decision was made in tandem with the 1946 New Towns Act, which sought to depopulate urban centres in the South East of England and accommodate people in new settlements elsewhere. Green belt could therefore be designated by local authorities without worry that it would come into conflict with pressure from population 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 an idealised scenic/rustic argument which laid the blame for most social ills upon urban influences. In mid-1971, for example, 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.

Release for housing

Since 1955 London's green belt has extended significantly, stretching some 35 miles out in places. London's green belt now covers an area of 516,000 hectares, an area broadly three times larger than that of London itself. With London's population set to increase by 2,000,000 over the period 2015-2030 it is therefore under increasing pressure for limited land release. The London Society began debate about the city's green belt in 2014 with publication of a report entitled "Green Sprawl".^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Other organisations, including the Planning Officers Society,^[7] have since responded with specific calls for a review and proposals to balance land release with environmental protection.^[8][9][10]

In January 2016, the Adam Smith Institute released a paper showing that there was enough space in the green belt around London to build a million homes within ten minutes walk of existing train stations. The report estimated that in the Metropolitan Green Belt, there was around 20,000 hectares of land which was within 800m of a railway station, and a further 10,000 hectares of golf course land.^[11][12]

Designated area

The table lists the areas designated as the Metropolitan Green Belt in 2014. Between 2009 and 2014 there was a reduction of 435 hectares. In 2009, 19 of the 32 London boroughs had green belt land, however by 2014 Greenwich was recorded with zero green belt land.^[13] At least some part of every district in Surrey and Hertfordshire is included.

District (planning authority)	Region of England	Ceremonial county	Area (hectares)
Aylesbury Vale	South East	Buckinghamshire	4,800
Barking and Dagenham	London	Greater London	530
Barnet	London	Greater London	2,380
Basildon	East	Essex	6,950
Bexley	London	Greater London	1,120
Bracknell Forest	South East	Berkshire	3,840
Brentwood	East	Essex	13,700
Bromley	London	Greater London	7,730
Broxbourne	East	Hertfordshire	3,310
Castle Point	East	Essex	2,750
Central Bedfordshire	East	Bedfordshire	28,220
Chelmsford	East	Essex	12,850
Chiltern	South East	Buckinghamshire	17,380
Croydon	London	Greater London	2,310
Dacorum	East	Hertfordshire	10,690
Dartford	South East	Kent	4,110
Ealing	London	Greater London	310
East Hertfordshire	East	Hertfordshire	17,530
Elmbridge	South East	Surrey	5,620
Enfield	London	Greater London	3,060
Epping Forest	East	Essex	31,680
Epsom and Ewell	South East	Surrey	1,560
Gravesham	South East	Kent	7,670
Guildford	South East	Surrey	24,040
Haringey	London	Greater London	60
Harlow	East	Essex	640
Harrow	London	Greater London	1,090
Havering	London	Greater London	6,010
Hertsmere	East	Hertfordshire	8,040
Hillingdon	London	Greater London	4,970
Hounslow	London	Greater London	1,230
Kingston upon Thames	London	Greater London	640
Luton	East	Bedfordshire	140
Maidstone	South East	Kent	530
Medway	South East	Kent	1,340
Mid Sussex	South East	West Sussex	20
Mole Valley	South East	Surrey	19,640
Newham	London	Greater London	80
North Hertfordshire	East	Hertfordshire	14,250
Redbridge	London	Greater London	2,070
Reigate and Banstead	South East	Surrey	8,890
Richmond upon Thames	London	Greater London	140
Rochford	East	Essex	12,570
Runnymede	South East	Surrey	6,140
Sevenoaks	South East	Kent	34,400
Slough	South East	Berkshire	860
South Bucks	South East	Buckinghamshire	12,350
Southend-on-Sea	East	Essex	610
Spelthorne	South East	Surrey	3,320
St Albans	East	Hertfordshire	13,140
Stevenage	East	Hertfordshire	260
Surrey Heath	South East	Surrey	4,190
Sutton	London	Greater London	620
Tandridge	South East	Surrey	23,300
Three Rivers	East	Hertfordshire	6,840
Thurrock	East	Essex	11,920
Tonbridge and Malling	South East	Kent	17,060
Tunbridge Wells	South East	Kent	7,130
Uttlesford	East	Essex	3,810
Waltham Forest	London	Greater London	840
Watford	East	Hertfordshire	410
Waverley	South East	Surrey	21,080
Welwyn Hatfield	East	Hertfordshire	10,250
Windsor and Maidenhead	South East	Berkshire	16,480
Woking	South East	Surrey	4,030
Wokingham	South East	Berkshire	2,900
Wycombe	South East	Buckinghamshire	15,630
TOTAL			514,060

References

1. "Area of Designated Green Belt Land".
2. Manns, J., "Green Sprawl: Our Current Affection for a Preservation Myth?", London Society, London, 2014
3. Jonathan Prynn, "London's green belt isn't sacrosanct...we need to build homes on it", Evening Standard, 09 December 2014
4. Peter Murray, Is London's Green Belt Overprotected?, On Office Magazine, http://www.onofficemagazine.com/architecture/item/3625-peter-murray-is-london-s-green-belt-overprotected
5. Paul Cheshire, Are They Green *Belts% by Accident?, LSE Spatial Economics Research Centre Blog, http://spatial-economics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/are-they-green-belts-by-accident.html
6. Homes for Britain, Why We Need Reform of the Green Belt in London and the South East, http://homesforbritain.org.uk/why-we-need-reform-of-the-green-belt-in-london-and-the-south-east/
7. Planning Officers Society, Planning For a Better Future: Our Manifesto for the Next Government, Aylesbury, March 2015
8. "The Green Belt: A Place for Londoners?", London First, London, 2015
9. "Delivering Change: Building Homes Where we Need Them", Centre for Cities, London, 2015
10. AECOM, Big Bold Global Connected London 2065, http://www.aecom.com/deployedfiles/Internet/Geographies/Europe/Document%20Library/AECOM%20Manifesto%20for%20the%20London%20City%20Region_low%20res.pdf
11. "Press Release: New paper reveals where London's Green Belt must be built on to curtail housing crisis". January 8, 2016.
12. "A garden of one's own" (PDF).
13. Annex 1: area of designated green belt land by local planning authority as at 31 March 2014 www.gov,uk, Accessed 09 June 2015