What the grey-belt policy is really doing to parts of our countryside

In December 2024, the government introduced its policy of ‘grey belt’. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) deemed this to be land within the Green Belt that comprised previously-developed land or other areas that did not contribute strongly to Green Belt purposes of checking unrestricted urban sprawl, preventing neighbouring towns from merging and preserving the setting and special character of historic towns.

It cited “disused petrol stations” and “abandoned car parks” as examples of sites in the Green Belt that could be considered ‘grey belt’ and released for development.

However, and surely to no one’s great surprise, a report by our friends at CPRE Hertfordshire and the London Green Belt Council has revealed the devastating impact of the government’s introduction of grey belt.

‘Green Belt is now grey belt’ uncovers that 83 per cent of planning appeals on sites in the London Metropolitan Green Belt between February and December 2025 were permitted specifically on grey-belt grounds.

This is more than twice the proportion that were granted over the previous 10 years on any basis. And yet, as the report shows, this sacrifice of Green Belt is unnecessary because there are more than 1.4 million homes already with planning permission since 2007 that have yet to be built.

This figure combined with the number of brownfield sites yet to be developed would on its own easily surpass the government’s target to build 1.5 million new homes.

The report details a range of solutions and recommendations that the government must follow if we are to stop this massacre of our countryside – vital for our health, wildlife and the environment.

• To read the report, click here