We recently saw the publication of the Raynsford review, outlining a series of recommendations to reform the planning system. 

Yet there’s always one elephant in the room: the green belt. Its existence is never called into question, its value never queried.  

The green belt is the part of the planning system most familiar to the public. Everyone knows its purpose – it prevents development. When anyone attempts to suggest that we might want to think again about the role and the extent of the green belt, the reaction is usually swift and negative. 

The government recognises that the green belt is the planning system’s emblem. To review it would be political suicide

The green belt is sacrosanct. To reform it would surely be to allow developers to run riot across the countryside, swallowing it up beneath a sea of concrete. 

Yet reform doesn’t have to mean a planning free-for-all.

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