The ASI's new report The Green Noose: An analysis of Green Belts and proposals for reform features in two articles from The Times. From The Times:
Green belts around cities should be stripped of their protected status to allow the construction of more than two million homes, according to a free-market think-tank.
Protecting the green belt benefits the “few rich enough to be able to afford to live in or near them” and puts greater pressure on urban green space enjoyed by far more people, the report by the Adam Smith Institute says.
The institute calculates that a million homes could be built on the outskirts of London, within walking distance of a railway station, by sacrificing just 3.7 per cent of the capital’s green belt.
Also from The Times:
However, despite the slowing pace of UK annual house price growth, Shelter, the homeless charity, warned that high prices were keeping would-be buyers out of the market. Campbell Robb, its chief executive, said: “It’s no surprise that home ownership in the UK is now below the European average.”
The figures were published as the Adam Smith Institute, the think-tank, said that London’s housing crisis could be eased by building one million homes on the 3.7 per cent of the green belt that is within walking distance of a railway station.
The new ASI report, The Green Noose: An analysis of Green Belts and proposals for reform, looks at the Green Belt’s impact on England’s housing shortage. After a comprehensive review of the causes of the housing crisis, it concludes that the planning structure is out of date and in need of radical reform.