A new study by the Adam Smith Institute, <\/u>\u2018A<\/u> Garden of One\u2019s Own\u2019<\/u> looks into the ways in which housing demand in London and the South East of England can be met, concluding that at least one million new homes are needed and observing that \u2018<\/u>Building on 20,000 acres of the Metropolitan Green Belt (roughly 3.7%) would create room for the 1m new homes needed, estimating 50 houses per acre\u2019, and also end the \u2018corrupt subsidy to the middle class that hurts ordinary Londoners\u2019.<\/u><\/p>\n
The Adam Smith Institute writes:<\/u><\/p>\n
London and surrounding counties need at least one million new homes in the next ten years to meet housing demand, and to stop rents and house prices from soaring higher.\u00a0 Many of these new homes will have to come on greenfield or Green Belt sites because not enough suitable brownfield land exists; we estimate that this will require roughly 20,000 hectares of green belt space.\u00a0 <\/strong>Almost the full amount of space (20,000ha) can be found within a 10 minute walk \u2013 800m \u2013 of existing commuter train stations.<\/p>\n The paper, \u2018A Garden of One\u2019s Own: Suggestions for development in the Metropolitan Green Belt\u2019, identifies specific areas where tens of thousands of dwellings can be built, and points out how providing the housing Londoners need does not require \u2018concreting over\u2019 the countryside, destroying amenity, or overcrowding.\u00a0 The author of the paper, Tom Papworth, considers the five main justifications given for the green belt: to check sprawl; to prevent towns merging; to safeguard the countryside; to preserve historic towns; and to force land recycling; and notes that many pieces of land currently designated that way do not meet any of these.\u00a0 For example, there is an area of land between Hainault, Barkingside, Chadwell Heath and Colliers Row, totalling about 1,200 ha\u2014or 60,000 dwellings at standard densities outside of London\u2014where none of these purposes apply. It is already swallowed by Redbridge, it would have no impact on merging with London, there are no historic towns, and land recycling is irrelevant.<\/p>\n This paper explores some of the best areas to build on low quality Green Belt around London. Locations include: East of Theydon Bois station, around Redbridge, Pinner Park Farm in Harrow, and some of the hundreds of Green Belt golf courses.\u00a0 London must build on low quality Green Belt spaces around existing commuter infrastructure to solve its housing crisis, according to a new paper from the Adam Smith Institute which identifies many of those areas.\u00a0 Building on 20,000 acres of the Metropolitan Green Belt (roughly 3.7%) would create room for the 1m new homes needed, estimating 50 houses per acre; nearly all of which could be built within 10 minutes walk of a station.<\/p>\n The author of the report, Tom Papworth, said:\u00a0 \u2018London and the surrounding counties need 1 million new homes over the next 10 years, but there is only enough \u2018brownfield\u2019 land for a third of that. \u2018Greenfield\u2019 development is no longer a question of \u2018if\u2019 but \u2018when\u2019.\u00a0 Green Belts are unsustainable. Green Belt policy pushes up the cost of living, reduces people\u2019s quality of life and actually harms the environment. Yet it has become an article of faith among politicians and is staunchly defended by the (generally wealthier) citizens who live near the Green Belt, and those who value the notion but ignore the harm it does to others.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018We have to choose whether to protect valuable inner-city green space or sacrifice our parks for the sake of low-grade farmland, golf courses and already-developed sites that happen to have once been classified as Green Belt. With London\u2019s mayoral election due in a few months, it is time to put housing at the top of the political agenda.\u2019<\/p>\n Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Sam Bowman, added: \u2018London\u2019s Green Belt is a corrupt subsidy to the middle class that hurts ordinary Londoners. It doesn\u2019t provide amenity to most Londoners, who rarely even see it, and it drives up land prices which makes houses and inner-city green spaces unaffordable for everybody but the rich. To solve the housing crisis, we need to build more homes. To build more homes, we need to free up some of London\u2019s green belt. It\u2019s as simple as that.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t have to mean less green space. More green belt land available for development means cheaper land, cheaper gardens, and bigger public parks and sports fields. Those are green spaces that Londoners actually use. Right now London is being strangled by the Green Belt, and freeing up more of that land for development of houses, gardens and parks would give all of us more room to breathe.\u2019<\/p>\n View the press release<\/a><\/p>\n View the report<\/a><\/p>\n View a blog post<\/a> summarising the paper<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new study by the Adam Smith Institute, \u2018A Garden of One\u2019s Own\u2019 looks into the ways in which housing demand in London and the South East of England can be met, concluding that at least one million new homes … Continue reading