GREY LIGHT: An inspector has allowed an appeal for 173 homes on green belt land in Essex.

The ruling came after the inspector concluded that the site fell under the government’s new ‘grey belt‘ designation because a nearby settlement was a village and not a town and after they found a ‘very low’ housing land supply level in the area of less than one year.

There have been similar cases since the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) changes of December 2024.

A planning inspector approved 135 homes on green belt land in Bagshot, Surrey, in March after ruling that nearby settlements were villages, not towns – effectively meaning the development wouldn’t breach the green belt purpose of stopping separate towns merging into one.

Planning applications and appeals are increasingly referring to the ‘grey belt’, where parts of the green belt that have been previously developed or don’t contribute to the green belt’s purpose.

Please contact us to for more information or to find out if your site or land may qualify as grey belt land.