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21
Jan
Funding sought for green belt review
North Yorkshire Council has expressed an interest in government funding for a review of the county’s green belt.
The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government announced financial support for local councils which are drawing up housing plans to meet newly imposed national housebuilding targets.
Up to £70,000 was made available for each authority that intended to undertake a review of its green belt amid the government’s drive to build more homes.
As part of the Labour government’s housebuilding agenda, ministers have significantly increased North Yorkshire’s housing need to 4,232 a year — it had previously been 1,361.
Currently, the council is drawing up a Local Plan which will set out where new houses and commercial developments can be built in the region over the next 15 to 20 years.
In a report, Matthew Lickes, planning policy and place manager at the council, said expressing an interest in the green belt review funding would help the authority should such a review be required.
He said:
North Yorkshire Council faces a challenge in planning to meet the increased housing numbers established through the new National Planning Policy Framework. Should the council be unable to find sufficient available land to meet these needs, the suitability of the green belt for development purposes should then be explored through formal review processes.
Given that the North Yorkshire Local Plan is at an early stage of production, a definitive position (either way) on whether a green belt review will be required cannot be established by the deadline for funding applications.
The only reasonable conclusion to reach at this stage, is that a green belt review may be required.
Mr Lickes said the Local Plan was still in its early stages and it had not been established whether a review would be needed.
However, he added that expressing an interest in the funding would help to avoid delays in the plan process.
Mr Lickes said:
This picture will become clearer as the Local Plan develops, particularly through the completion of further evidence, but it would be incumbent for the council to prepare for a potential review so as not to result in delays to overall plan-production timescales.
The green belt is protected areas of rural land where the building of new homes and businesses is only allowed in special circumstances.
It was first introduced in the 1960s to stop urban sprawl and protect Harrogate’s countryside from being dug up for developments.
Map of the green belt in the Harrogate district.
Much of Harrogate’s green belt is along its southern boundary with Leeds and covers 36,000 acres. Around 11% of the district is allocated to green belt land.
However, under the Labour government’s planning reforms, local authorities which cannot meet housing need will be required to carry out a review of green belt land.
This would help to release “grey belt” land, which is defined as land in the green belt comprising previously developed land or land which does not support the green belt designation.
Concern over speculative development
The move comes as Richard Flinton, the council’s chief executive, said he was concerned that the government’s housebuilding drive could leave the authority open to “speculative” housing schemes.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner revealed in August 2024 that the government wants to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years to “correct the errors of the past”.
Mr Flinton told a meeting of the Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce on January 13 that there was concern that the national drive to build more homes was moving faster than the council's development of a Local Plan.
He said the council has since been lobbying government over a “transitional arrangement” while it draws up the housing blueprint.
Mr Flinton said there was concern around “speculative development” and the threat of planning applications being overturned on appeal without a housing plan being in place.
He said:
We are currently trying to lobby government because we want some transitional arrangements. When the new council was put in place, we were given five years to pull together a Local Plan.
Now we have a new government wanting housebuilding to get going more quickly than that Local Plan can be developed. We have a concern around speculative development if the Local Plan is not in place to bring the land supply forward that underpins that level of housing.
The Stray Ferret has reported extensively on the issue of housebuilding in the Harrogate district, including an analysis on what Labour's drive for housing targets will mean for the district.
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