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The three way fight for the future of the Green Belt

21 January 2015

Consider the example of planning policy. On one side of the barricades, there are those opposed to new development - perhaps not in general, but certainly when it comes to any specific attempt to build much-needed new housing. Lined up against them is the pro-development lobby who want to see the existing restrictions on new-build swept away. Looking on a map the biggest such restriction is the Green Belt - which the radicals want to get rid of. Their arguments are neatly encapsulated in a piece for City AM by Ben Southwood, who makes a number of interesting points:
''According to LSE professor Paul Cheshire, new build houses are about 40 per cent bigger in the Netherlands and 38 per cent bigger in Germany than they are in England. And yet housing goes for 45 per cent less per square metre in the Netherlands and, in Germany, prices did not rise throughout the entire 1971 to 2002 period ''

This article was published online by Conservativehome on January 21, 2015
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

Related links
Paul Cheshire webpage
Spatial Economics Research Centre webpage

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