Greenbelt building 'essential' to meet housing targets

Government planning targets for 240,000 new homes to be built every year by 2016 can only be achieved by building on the green belt, the head of the government's housing review into the UK's future residential construction needs has stated.

John Calcutt, author of the Calcutt review which was published last year, said of the balance of building on brownfield and Greenfield sites: "Much more former commercial or industrial land should be used and whilst new settlements and Greenfield sites will have to make a contribution, the proportion of Greenfield development should be minimised."

However, this means there is likely to be a "trickle" of development on areas on greenbelt surrounding major centres of population, Estates Review has written today.

The issue of building on greenbeltland in order to meet Britain's housing needs has been a major issue for many years.

The government revealed last month that since Labour came into office in 1997 comma 14,000 acres of greenbeltland has been built on, the Daily Telegraph reported.


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