The Government’s publication of the Planning Practice Guidance on its new Grey Belt policy last week will be of considerable interest to any neighbourhood plan team covering areas in the Green Belt, especially those covering villages, whether washed over or inset, and where the LPA can no longer show a five year housing land supply position.
As one of our favourite planning commentators, Zach Simons, said on his excellent Planorak’s blog: “It’s a seismic reversal of the determinative planning policy test - from a presumption against to a presumption in favour - that will apply to hundreds and hundreds of sites all over the country”. On the face of it, we can’t disagree and as Zach goes on to point out, there are already LPA and appeal decisions being made to approve proposals that would almost certainly have failed the ‘very special circumstances’ test had it applied anymore.
So what can be done if development around the edge of any village in the Green Belt - that can be considered a ‘sustainable location’ - is now deemed Grey Belt and therefore no longer ‘inappropriate’ as a matter of principle?
Although neighbourhood plans cannot carry out Green Belt reviews nor amend Green Belt boundaries or identify Grey Belt as plan makers, we think there is a way for neighbourhood planning teams wanting to play off the front foot and manage this change successfully. This could be especially important given even the newest Local Plans that will define the Grey Belt are at least three years from being adopted.
We have created a new neighbourhood plan policy aimed at those teams – ‘Grey Belt Policy’. It uses evidence the team will already be gathering and shapes it to create a valid and effective policy response. We are integrating it into some existing projects based in the Green Belt but it will also work as a standalone policy for other neighbourhood plans in these circumstances.
It is of course too early to tell how successful the product will be in helping LPAs manage development proposals in the Grey Belt. But, as our clients have learned many times over the last few years, the alternative of hanging around for someone else to figure out the answer is rarely a better idea.
For product pricing and availability please contact us.
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