Angela Rayner’s housebuilding plans slammed as ‘rushed and incoherent’ | Politics | News | EUROtoday

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Peers have slammed Sir Keir Starmer’s plans to construct properties on already-developed components of the inexperienced belt as “largely redundant”.

The House of Lords Built Environment Committee wrote to Housing Secretary Angela Rayner to warn the coverage is “unlikely to make any significant difference” to the variety of new properties that may be constructed.

Lord Moylan, chair of the Committee, stated: “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.

“In December the Government published the final National Planning Policy Framework and the revisions it has made to the framework have now made the concept of grey belt land largely redundant as land will now be more likely to be released from the Green Belt through existing channels instead.

“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.”

There is “significant uncertainty” about what number of properties may truly be constructed on gray belt land with estimates starting from as little as 50,000 as much as 4 million.

The Lords added: “This uncertainty is compounded by the fact that the Government does not have a clear plan to track the progress and assess the effectiveness of its new policies.”

The authorities has beforehand described the gray belt as “poor quality and ugly areas” on components of protected land, referred to as the inexperienced belt.

Analysts have recommended England may have an estimated £850billion of gray belt.

There could possibly be 30,597 potential gray belt websites totalling 7,6215 hectares, specialist property lender Together recommended.

This could be sufficient to construct 2,362,680 new properties with an estimated growth worth of £850,272,243,386, an evaluation by software program agency Searchland stated.

The inexperienced belt covers about 13% of England and was designed to restrict the expansion of huge built-up areas, and to cease massive cities merging into each other.

Under the Labour authorities’s plans, if a council’s housing targets can’t be met some current inexperienced belt land shall be re-designated as gray belt.

This is as a part of its plans to construct 1.5 million new properties over this parliament.

A spokesman for the Housing division stated: “We have inherited the worst housing crisis in living memory and are taking decisive action to deliver 1.5 million homes as part of our Plan for Change, including overhauling the broken planning system.

“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.”

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/2009892/angela-rayner-green-belt-keir-starmer