The government’s idea of re-designating areas as “grey belt” land in its bid to build more homes is “largely redundant”, a House of Lords committee has said. Ministers had said that, if a council’s housing targets ccould not be met, some protected land known as green belt would be re-labelled grey belt and thereby freed up for development. However, after conducting an inquiry the committee said it suspected the grey belt concept had been “eclipsed by more significant changes” made by the government. A government spokesperson said its changes to the green belt were “just one of the ambitious housing reforms we have set out to solve the housing crisis and boost economic growth”.They added that the measures were “informed through widespread consultation and will unlock more land for the homes and infrastructure communities desperately need, delivering sustainable, affordable and well-designed developments on low quality grey belt”.Since coming to power in July, the Labour government has said it wants to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years and has identified “poor quality” green belt land as possible areas of construction.It pointed to a disused garage in Tottenham, north London, as an example of land that could not be developed because it was deemed to be on a green belt site. Green belts were established more than 70 years ago with five purposes, including restricting the sprawl of urban areas and protecting the countryside.In a letter to Housing Secretary Angela Rayner, chair of the Built Environment Committee Lord Moylan said the green belt had …
