National Planning Policy
Guidance: Green Belt
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Stage 1 Is it Grey Belt?
Purpose A Checking the unrestricted sprawl of
large built up areas
Purpose A – to check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas
This purpose relates to the sprawl of large built-up areas. Villages should not be considered large built-up areas.
Contribution Illustrative features
Assessment areas that contribute strongly are likely to be free of existing development, and lack physical feature(s) in reasonable proximity that could restrict and contain development.
They are also likely to include all of the following features:
f be adjacent or near to a large built-up area;
f if developed, result in an incongruous pattern of development (such as an extended “finger” of development into the Green Belt).
Assessment areas that contribute moderately are likely to be adjacent or near to a large built-up area, but include one or more features that weaken the land’s contribution to this purpose a, such as (but not limited to):
f having physical feature(s) in reasonable proximity that could restrict and contain development;
f be partially enclosed by existing development, such that new development would not result in an incongruous pattern of development;
f contain existing development;
f being subject to other urbanising influences.
Assessment areas that make only a weak or no contribution are likely to include those that:
f are not adjacent to or near to a large built-up area;
f are adjacent to or near to a large built-up area, but containing or being largely enclosed by significant existing development.
Stage 1 Is it Grey Belt?
Purpose B – to prevent neighbouring towns merging into one another
This purpose relates to the merging of towns, not villages.
Contribution Illustrative features
Assessment areas that contribute strongly are likely to be free of existing development and include all of the following features:
f forming a substantial part of a gap between towns;
f the development of which would be likely to result in the loss of visual separation of towns.
Assessment areas that contribute moderately are likely to be located in a gap between towns, but include one or more features that weaken their contribution to this purpose, such as (but not limited to):
f forming a small part of the gap between towns;
f being able to be developed without the loss of visual separation between towns. This could be (but is not limited to) due to the presence or the close proximity of structures, natural landscape elements or topography that preserve visual separation.
Assessment areas that contribute weakly are likely to include those that:
f do not form part of a gap between towns, or;
f form part of a gap between towns, but only a very small part of this gap, without making a contribution to visual separation.
Stage 1 Is it Grey Belt?
Purpose D
Preserving the setting and special character of historic towns
Purpose D – to preserve the setting and special character of historic towns
This purpose relates to historic towns, not villages. Where there are no historic towns in the plan area, it may not be necessary to provide detailed assessments against this purpose.
Contribution Illustrative features
Assessment areas that contribute strongly are likely be free of existing development and to include all of the following features:
f form part of the setting of the historic town;
f make a considerable contribution to the special character of a historic town. This could be (but is not limited to) as a result of being within, adjacent to, or of significant visual importance to the historic aspects of the town.
Assessment areas that perform moderately are likely to form part of the setting and/or contribute to the special character of a historic town but include one or more features that weaken their contribution to this purpose, such as (but not limited to):
f being separated to some extent from historic aspects of the town by existing development or topography
f containing existing development
f not having an important visual, physical, or experiential relationship to historic aspects of the town
Assessment areas that make no or only a weak contribution are likely to include those that:
f do not form part of the setting of a historic town;
f have no visual, physical, or experiential connection to the historic aspects of the town.
Stage 2 Can Your development Amount to “Not Inappropriate” Development?
a) Impact on the remaining Green Belt in the Plan Area
f Identify your Plan Area (likely to be LPA area).
f To what extent would development on your site affect the ability of all the remaining Green Belt across the Plan Area to continue to serve all five purposes of the Green Belt in a meaningful way.
f It is unlikely that development would fundamentally undermine the remaining Green Belt in most instances, but very large sites may need to consider this is detail.
b) Unmet need for the type of development proposed
f Housing:
Lack of a five year supply of deliverable housing sites, including the relevant buffer where applicable OR Housing Delivery Tests was below 75% of the housing requirement over the previous three years.
f For non-residential uses, there is no specified measure to demonstrate unmet need, and this will require consideration on a case by case basis.
f Contact the economics team for further information on need in relation to different types of housing, industrial and logistics and other useseconomics@iceniprojects.com
All four elements of this stage must be satisfied
c) Sustainable location
f For the purpose of the decision making, where grey belt land is not in a location that is or can be made sustainable, development on this land is inappropriate.
f Whether locations are sustainable should be determined in light of local context and site or development-specific considerations. However, in reaching these judgments, national policy is clear that authorities should consider opportunities to maximise sustainable transport solutions, as set out in paragraphs 110 and 115 of the NPPF.
f Contact the Iceni Transport team to discuss how your site could be made sustainable - transport_team@iceniprojects.com
Would it fundamentally undermine the purposes (taken together) of the remaining Green Belt across the Plan Area as a whole? is there an unmet need for the development? Does the development meet the Golden Rules? Will the development be in a sustainable location?
d) Where applicable, the development proposed meets the ‘Golden Rules’
f Affordable housing that is 15% above existing affordable housing requirement to a maximum cap of 50% provision
f Necessary improvements to local or national infrastucture (i.e. at least Section 106 covering improvements).
f The provision of new, or improvements to existing green spaces that are accessible to the public. New residents should be able to access good quality green spaces within a short walk of their home, whether through onsite provision or through access to offsite spaces.
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