Tories: Green belt review will lead to 'unsustainable urban sprawl'

Tories today warned that Government plans to review green belt boundaries across England would lead to "unsustainable urban sprawl" and ruin the quality of life for many communities.

Ministers were forcing councils to review green belts in order to make way for more housing, under recommendations made in regional plans known as Regional Spatial Strategies, they said.

Shadow planning minister Bob Neill warned that the Government was giving the go-ahead for green belt "destruction".

He said: "This is a shocking betrayal by Gordon Brown who pledged to protect the green belt 'robustly'."

The areas proposed for green belt reviews include Guildford, Maidenhead, Oxford, Hemel Hempstead, Bristol, Gloucester and Nottingham.

The plans show that ministers believe "strategic reviews" of boundaries are necessary to "meet regional development needs".

Mr Neill said: "These top-down Whitehall plans will lead to unsustainable urban sprawl, extra congestion and higher carbon emissions, ruining many communities' quality of life.

"This will only deliver the sink estates of the 21st century, lacking proper infrastructure or environmental sustainability.

"Conservatives will scrap these regional plans, allowing local communities to protect their green belt and determine the appropriate level of new development for their area."

But a Communities and Local Government spokesman said it was up to local authorities to find the most sustainable locations to accommodate "sufficient, good quality housing".

The recommendations had not released green belts for immediate development but obliged the councils concerned to carry out boundary reviews, he added.

"The Government has put in place robust rules that protect green belt land and we have no plans to change them," he said.

"Our clear priority will remain to build on brownfield land. In fact over 70% of new developments are being built on brownfield land and nationally, the amount of green belt land continues to grow, with a 33,000 hectare increase since 1997.

"The reviews were recommended by an independent panel of experts and these local council-run reviews must still meet the tough national criteria for protecting the green belt set by the Government.

"If as a result of these reviews green belt land is lost, consideration should be given to whether other additional land should be designated as green belt in its place."