Since its general election victory at the beginning of this month, the Labour Party has made it clear that it means business when it comes to getting Britain building. New chancellor Rachel Reeves came out firing, with the reversal of the onshore wind ban and the reinstatement of mandatory housing targets announced just days after coming into office.

Whether Labour will be successful in achieving its building ambitious, which on the housebuilding side includes a commitment to construct 1.5 million new homes in five years, will come down to how effectively it can use policy to remove or circumvent the traditional obstacles to housebuilding in the UK.

One way it intends to do that is by removing the taboo around developing on the green belt, using a new term – grey belt – to take the shift public perceptions on the issue. Labour’s grey belt policy was announced in April, but they have yet to put meat on those bones and the term was not mentioned in the King’s Speech last week. So what might grey belt actually mean? And how useful can it realistically be to a government seeking to stimulate housebuilding?