Hats off to the Mayor of London. Sadiq Khan has abandoned his misguided support for the Green Belt. In 2017 he ‘vowed’ not just to maintain but to strengthen the green belt. He said:
London needs 66,000 new homes every year to meet its increasing need and put right years of underinvestment. But development must not be done at any cost: the Green Belt is the lungs of the capital and must be protected.
He now says:
The perception many people have is that the Green Belt is all beautiful countryside, green and pleasant land, rich with wildlife. The reality is very different. The Green Belt can often be low-quality land, poorly maintained and rarely enjoyed by Londoners. Only around 13 per cent is made up of parks and areas that the public can access.
So given the quality of parts of the London’s Green Belt and the extent of the housing crisis, I believe the status quo is wrong, out-of-date and simply unsustainable. Development on carefully chosen parts of the green belt – done in the right way – would allow us to unlock hundreds of thousands of good quality new homes for Londoners. This would not only go a long way to ending the housing crisis but provide a huge boost to our economy.
The fact that a quarter of Greater London is designated as green belt shows what a misnomer it is. Most people imagine it is countryside which stops one conurbation bumping into another. So having it within London is rather odd. The Labour Party is right to use ‘grey belt’ as a more accurate term for much of the scuzzy land insanely being ‘protected’.
Public opinion changes sharply once the truth is understood. The annual Survey of Londoners found that 56% favour housebuilding on ‘parts of green nelt land which have previously been built on, such as car parks and old petrol stations’ – with only 18% opposed.
Naturally, the Yimbys are cheering the shift from the Mayor. Sam Richards, of Britain Remade, said it was ‘absolutely right’. But Richards doesn’t feel it is an either/or choice with brownfield development – rather, far more houses need to built ‘across the board’ adding:
By regenerating and densifying the capital’s damp and draughty post-war estates, building more homes around train and tube stations and using land better by building homes on industrial sites, the mayor could deliver 893,000 new energy-efficient homes. A move that would bring down rents across the city and make huge progress in tackling London’s housing crisis once and for all.
I’m afraid the Conservatives have taken a different stance. Kevin Hollinrake, the Shadow Housing Secretary, is among the critics. Susan Hall, the Leader of the Conservatives in the London Assembly, has condemned the new plan as a ‘complete betrayal’.
Politicians find it irresistible to denounce each other for u-turns – especially tempting when the target is someone as condescending as Khan. However, Khan’s manifesto last year didn’t mention the green belt. Some policy nerds spotted that omission as significant at the time – the curious incident of the dog that didn’t bark in the night. It didn’t feature much as an election issue, but that lack of a pledge meant the Mayor gave himself wriggle room.
Also, Khan had the sense to admit he had changed his mind. Wouldn’t Keir Starmer have found it easier if he made a similar admission with his speech this week about immigration being so high that ‘we risked becoming an island of strangers’? Keith Joseph declared: ‘It was only in April 1974 that I was converted to Conservatism. I had thought that I was a Conservative but now I see that I was not really one at all.’ That humility was a strength rather than a weakness. The honesty proved his sincerity and earned him a hearing in making the free market case – despite his sins as a cabinet minister in the corporatist era of Ted Heath.
So far, so good. The bad news for young and youngish Londoners ambitious to get on the housing ladder is that I doubt the announcement will prove transformational. As the Centre for Policy Studies has pointed out, his record is pretty abysmal. As mentioned earlier, eight years ago he declared that London ‘needed’ 66,000 new homes a year. He’s been managing about half that. State land banking in the capital has continued with the Mayor as a prime culprit. Transport for London owns 5,700 acres of land, which is equivalent to the size of Camden.
This leaves an opportunity for local authorities in outer London boroughs, including Conservative ones. Both the Mayor and the Government are offering greater flexibility on green belt development. It should be used intelligently – to provide beautiful new terraced streets and mansion squares with trees and greenery on derelict concrete wastelands that have been abandoned for decades. Not ‘concreting over the green belt’, but environmental and aesthetic enhancements to all who have eyes to see. Not to mention allowing some more people the pride and security of their own home. That should be the Conservative response. Not always being nattering, nabobs of negativism.
Click here to subscribe to our daily briefing – the best pieces from CapX and across the web.
CapX depends on the generosity of its readers. If you value what we do, please consider making a donation.
