A recent study published by the countryside charity, the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) has found that the government’s target of 300,000 new homes could be built every year for the next four years, and then some, on Brownfield sites, leaving the Green Belt untouched. 

Responding the findings, Liberal Democrat Group Leader Councillor Howard Sykes MBE posed the question:  “Why then do we need the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework with the proposal by the Greater Manchester Mayor and his Labour colleagues to destroy vast swathes of our irreplaceable Green Belt with unnecessary housing?”

The CPRE found that there are enough sites in England that have been previously developed, and that are available for housing, to build 1.33 million homes, and that the number of sites with planning permission that are as yet still undeveloped has risen by a fifth in just one year.

Councillor Sykes added:  “The CPRE have helpfully identified that the problem does not lie in Councils giving planning permission for housing developments on suitable sites; the problem lies with house builders not building out and instead sitting on sites in the hope that they will make more money when land values increase.” 

“As I have said before, GMSF this is the wrong plan at the wrong time,” stated Councillor Sykes.

The CPRE report can be found at https://www.cpre.org.uk/news/theres-already-enough-suitable-land-to-meet-targets-for-new-homes-we-find/