Green Belt
(asked on 16th October 2017) - View Source
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many hectares of land in England have been (a) declassified and (b) classified as greenbelt in each of the last 20 years.
It is for local authorities to consider changes to the Green Belt. Only in exceptional circumstances may a local authority alter its Green Belt, by means of the Local Plan process. Local authorities are expected to report any Green Belt boundary change found to be justified, to inform the Local Authority Green Belt Statistics that we publish annually. From the statistics available for past years, the figures are set out in the table below.
Year | Total declassified area (hectares) | Total classified area (hectares) |
2010-11 | 30 | 30 |
2011-12 | 130 | 0 |
2012-13 | 850 | 460 |
2013-14 | 540 | 0 |
2014-15 | 1,980 | 0 |
2015-16 | 1,030 | 10 |
2016-17 | 790 | - |
- = negligible (fewer than five hectares) | ||
The figures included in the table are the rounded sum of unrounded values and therefore may not sum to the net changes published in the statistical releases of each year.
These figures are based on changes published in each year’s statistical release and do not reflect any subsequent revisions.