Allow building on green belt if locals agree advices Tory think tank

Think tank Policy Exchange has published a report, Cities for growth, which said only 30 per cent of people disagree with allowing some development on the green belt.

The report also suggests that local people should be compensated if they are affected by development, and that if more than half object to the quality of the homes they should not be built.

Planning permission on brown field sites should be easier and always permitted if less than half of those directly affected object, it said.

It recommends that government plans to boost the economy, due to be published next week, must allow for building new cities and the expansion of existing urban areas. It said if the government is serious about delivering growth, that garden cities – new, private sector urban areas – must be developed in close proximity to existing towns and cities across the country.

The report argued that developers should be able to pitch for the creation of new garden cities close to and linked into existing cities and their economies by holding local referendum with the communities directly affected by the development. If local people agree and business wants to proceed then government should facilitate this.

Alex Morton, senior research fellow and author of the report, said: ‘Our planning system has delivered both too little and too poor quality development, and led to an adversarial relationship between developers and local communities. It has squeezed out good quality building, by making land so expensive that people have little left over to build attractive developments.

‘We need to end the ‘we know best’ bureaucratic culture that opposes letting local people decide what is built near them, often imposing shoddy homes. New and attractive garden cities and planning reform can solve our housing crisis and drive economic growth.’