Planning double-whammy shows Government has little regard for Green Belt

Anne Main has reacted with disbelief to a double-whammy of announcements this week that could potentially lead to significant loss of areas of Green Belt in the South East, whilst abandoning plans to encourage redevelopment of empty properties.

Anne Main, MP for St Albans, has reacted with disbelief to a double-whammy of Government planning announcements this week that could potentially lead to significant loss of areas of Green Belt in the South East, whilst abandoning plans to encourage redevelopment of empty properties.

In a new regional planning document from Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears, councils are instructed to remove Green Belt protection in a number of areas across the South East, to make way for new-build housing developments. Meanwhile, the Government has abandoned plans to use the Housing and Planning Delivery Grant to bring empty properties back into use.

Anne said:

"These announcements show once again that the Government has little regard for our Green Belt, and is taking the easy option of developing it, rather than looking at tougher alternatives. Just a year ago, Gordon Brown gave a cast iron assurance about the future of the Green Belt, and now we can see that this was completely worthless.

Our Green Belt is a very precious resource and it was established for good reasons: to protect the countryside and prevent coalescence of developments. Yes, the Green Belt does make us think long and hard about where to put development, but that's the reason we created it in the first place.

I think these announcements are foolish, and distract from what should be our real priorities. There is still plenty of scope for development of brown field sites, and bringing disused buildings back into use, or even achieving a change of use for commercial buildings, hundreds of which lie empty in London and the South East.

The houses that currently lie empty in London Road show what a blight empty property can be, and in October last year the government announced grants to reward councils for bringing empty properties back into use. However, this plan has now fallen by the wayside in favour of new-builds in the Green Belt, to the detriment of our community and others with similar pressures.

Pressures on the Green Belt in our area could ultimately see St Albans joined up to Hatfield and Hemel, and I think this is very worrying. Green Belt development is a short-sighted environmental folly and, whilst it may mean that the Government can achieve initial house-building targets this will be at the expense of respect for the environment, our communities and our green heritage.

I will not abandon my commitment to the Green Belt, as the Government has done, by taking the soft option of releasing green fields to developers rather than using brown field sites. I have constantly raised this issue in Parliament since my election in 2005, and I will continue to do so as I feel that the Green Belt is vital to the distinctiveness of St Albans. Our Green Belt is an essential resource and once it is gone, it is gone forever.""