CPRE London supports house building. But just building new homes will not solve the housing crisis. And building in the green belt is the worst possible option for London: it means losing countryside; creating high-carbon, car-dependent, unhealthy sprawl; it means inner-city regeneration opportunities are missed; and we fail to tackle the housing crisis.

Green belt is land around cities which is protected from development to halt urban sprawl and incentivise regeneration of already built-up areas.

UK developers and politicians, however, say the green belt ‘constraint’ is hampering efforts to tackle the housing crisis. They claim the only way to tackle the crisis is to build new homes. And that there isn’t enough land to build these within our towns and cities. But these claims do not hold up to scrutiny.

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