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The Guardian:
Six reasons why we should build on the green belt

21 May 2014

The fourth reason given for building on the green belt:

It encourages inequality
The green belt increases social inequality by acting as a wall that confines urban dwellers at increasingly higher densities. Prof Paul Cheshire of the London School of Economics described it as ''a very British form of discriminatory zoning, keeping the urban unwashed out of the home counties - and, of course, helping to turn houses into investment assets instead of places to live''.

This article was published in The Guardian on May 21, 2014
Link to article here

Related publications
Turning houses into gold: the failure of British planning, Paul Cheshire. Article in CentrePiece Volume 19, Issue 1, Spring 2014
Turning houses into gold: the failure of British planning, Paul Cheshire. LSE British Politics and Policy blog, posted May 7, 2014.

Related links
Paul Cheshire webpage
Spatial Economics Research Centre (SERC) webpage

Read more... The Guardian