Yesterday, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Vince Cable made a keynote speech on housing policy. Cable stated that the Liberal Democrats see protecting the green belt as the best way to tackle urban sprawl.

However, the former Business Secretary outlined a new flexible policy allowing some development on disused brownfield land, such as former petrol station sites, which are currently defined as green belt.

Such sites would be developed strictly in exchange for protecting genuinely ‘green’ spaces, such as playing fields.

Vince Cable said:

“The green belt is an emotional issue and the philosophy of preventing urban sprawl is a good one.

“Liberal Democrat campaigners all over the country have campaigned to ensure real green space – some of it green belt, some of it metropolitan open land – is protected where it provides real beauty and utility to the community.

“But to improve housing supply, we must be flexible and pragmatic not ideological and dogmatic.

“There are some parts of the Green Belt, for example, that have disused petrol stations or abandoned warehouses on them or places which – being immediately next to busy motorways – could hardly be called areas of beauty and tranquility. Nobody who is serious about resolving the housing crisis would argue that such sites should be off limits.

“What is needed is serious neighbourhood planning, ensuring communities and their councils have a real say in the process.  This should include greater powers for local authorities to ‘swap’ sites of low environmental value in order to protect the real green – and blue water – space everyone values, whether between towns or within urban areas.”