Property lawyer John Stephenson and planning lawyer Mark Challis believe that the reported 'land banking' by residential property developers is good, prudent business sense and not the prelude to vast swathes of green belt being developed as planning laws are supposedly relaxed.
Figures compiled by the leading home builders revealed that there has been enough land purchased to build over 600,000 homes - but that less than half of the land has been granted any kind of planning permission.
"There's great pressure on the home builders to build enough new homes to accommodate the growing population - and there simply aren't enough brown field sites to achieve that," explains John Stephenson.
"And there's pressure on the Government to make sure there's enough houses to meet the demands of a changing demography; people living longer and more single occupancy home owners for example.
"But it doesn't mean that there will be vast swathes of green belt developed for housing."
As planning lawyer Mark Challis explains; "The Government's proposed national planning policy framework will continue to give the green belt a high level of protection. It will be other, non designated areas that will come under intense pressure for development, particularly if they are on the edge of towns and villages. Developers who have land banked these sites may well find that they soon become ripe for development.
"The Government hopes that its national planning policies, including a strong presumption in favour of sustainable development, will encourage and accelerate growth. It will become harder for local authorities to refuse planning permission for housing schemes unless they can point to a clear and up to date policy that manifestly accords with the pro-growth national plan."
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