The Yorkshire Post says: Home truths on housing policy as green belt debate resurfaces
Yet the Tory leader survived by announcing that it was her “personal mission” to transform housing policy – and that this would be her defining domestic policy while she negotiated Britain’s exit from the European Union.
However, while a Whitehall rebranding led to the creation of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in January last year to supposedly reflect this new urgency, policy progress – just like Brexit – remains slow and fragmented.
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Hide AdIt is highlighted by new analysis by the Campaign to Protect Rural England which reveals the continuing failure to make the most of brownfield sites when there is a national shortage of housing, particularly affordable properties, and whether new developments are encroaching unduly on green belt land.
That said, the designation of ‘green belt’ land – a policy introduced after the war to prevent urban sprawl – should be open to review. Though the priority should be to regenerate redundant land in town and city centres, it is not this simple. New homes also require services – high-rise city centre apartments are not always ideal places to bring up young families – and it might be more practical to build larger-scale developments, even small towns, to meet the county’s housing needs. What is certain is that this policy approach needs far greater imagination and impetus.