Labour’s green belt compulsory purchase plan will ‘harm the viability of some farms’

The government will cap the amount of profit that landowners make with sales, and those that refuse to sell in areas of greatest need could find their land bought off them at “benchmark” value.

However, experts have urged Labour to focus on brownfield and so-called “grey belt” land over inappropriate green belt areas.

The green belt is made up of buffer zones around cities and built-up areas of parkland, which limit building to prevent urban sprawl.

It is separate from green field sites, which are fields and farmland in the countryside.

There are huge green belt spaces in West and South Yorkshire around Leeds and Sheffield, as well as encompassing York.

The Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner is conducting a review of the green belt, in an effort to hit the 1.5 million housing target.

Part of this includes the changes to compulsory purchase rules.

The CLA’s chief surveyor, Andrew Shirley, said the protection of the green belt should “not come at the cost of preventing sustainable growth, much needed local housing, and the expansion of rural businesses”.

However he warned that the compulsory purchase policy “would seem to penalise farmers for the housing crisis … and harm the viability of some farms”.

Lizzie Bundred Woodward, planning policy manager at the CPRE, previously known as the Campaign to Protect Rural England, backed the move, but cautioned against certain developments.

“They’re proposing to force landowners to put forward their sites at a below market value, otherwise they’ll compulsorily purchase it - that’s something that we would be definitely supportive of,” she told the Yorkshire Post.

“It would need to be on ‘grey belt’ and they would need to go through quite a rigorous process to ensure the sites they are putting forward are suitable for residential development.

“A lot of land in the green belt is not appropriate for essential development, due to ecological value or its value for producing agriculture and nature.

“A lot of green belt land isn’t near existing settlements or transport infrastructure, and it doesn’t have access to services that prospective residents would need. That’s where we would raise concerns.”

Labour has come up with a term “grey belt”, which refers to parts of the green belt, such as wasteland and old car parks, which appear like brownfield sites.

Ms Rayner has said that any development on the green belt would be subject to “golden rules” to ensure the development delivers 50 per cent affordable homes with a focus on social rent, and has access to green spaces and infrastructure such as schools and GP surgeries.

While some planning experts have said Labour will have to build on greenfield sites, the open fields which make up much of North Yorkshire, Ms Bundred Woodward cautioned against this.

The CPRE found that there is sufficient land across the UK for 1.2 million homes on brownfield sites.

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “We will reform the outdated compulsory purchase process to remove inflated values of land and ensure compensation paid to landowners is fair but not excessive.

“This is part of our plan to get Britain building again and deliver the homes the country desperately needs.

“We will preserve the green belt and take a brownfield-first approach in doing so, so sites which people are desperate to see used will be developed first. We will also use lower quality ‘grey belt’ land, like wasteland or old car parks, and introduce ‘golden rules’ to ensure that development benefits both communities and nature.”