Green belt review is chance to take on housing crisis

WHAT a difference an election makes. Britain’s housebuilding sector has endured a dismal couple of years with the shock of the Kwasi Kwarteng mini-Budget followed by a sustained period of high interest rates frightening away buyers at a time of soaring costs.

Reservation rates, starts and completions have all been massively depressed by an environment that could hardly be more hostile at a time when the need for new housing could scarcely be more acute. Something had to give.

The downgrading of the hallowed status of the green belt that followed polling day has been a long time coming. The country simply could not go on failing to provide the housing needed for the next generation while their parents and grandparents smugly sat on the unearned (and untaxed) gains made from decades of rampant property price inflation.

The green belt has served Britain well for more than 70 years but the time for a review was long overdue. London’s green belt covers three times as much land as the capital itself and has been a major contributor to the housing crisis.

The reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework, revealed by Angela Rayner yesterday less than a month after polling day, shows that this government is serious about rolling up its sleeves and getting on with making unpalatable decisions that have been ducked by successive governments of all stripes. The green belt is in play, albeit with significant caveats, and this is a once in a generation opportunity for housebuilders.

Good standards of design and sustainability will be key, and the lessons of mistakes made in the past must be learned. The sector — and the government — will not be forgiven if it carpets swathes of once protected open land with poky brick boxes. It is now up to the likes of Taylor Wimpey, Barratt, and Persimmon to prove that they are up to the challenge. The task will be to replace ugly open space with beautiful homes.