An evaluation of the Green Belt in an era of reform: A spatial analysis of the Solihull Borough

Abstract

Following the Green Belt’s introduction within the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act (TCPA), the policy has arguably become the most established and influential legacies of the UK planning system. The Green Belt is also at the forefront of planning debates internationally, helping to manage growth in global cities such as Toronto, Tokyo and Melbourne. Concerning England, the geographical setting for this paper, the Green Belt commands widespread interest because of the role the policy has played in preventing urban sprawl, while perpetuating romanticised beliefs associated with the countryside. It has, however, also been subject to widespread debate and been progressively attacked due to the deepening housing crisis, which has been attributed as a symptom of the policy. Such critiques are extremely topical; until the election of the UK Labour Government in 2024, the Green Belt has maintained strict application to its overarching aim in preventing sprawl and keeping land open. However, the adopted UK National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) 2024 arguably represented the most radical shift in the policy and reflected the Prime Minister’s ambition to develop within the so-called ‘Grey Belt’. This rhetoric was taken further within the new draft NPPF (published December 2025) which advocates development near well-served train stations. This direction from central government is predicated upon an evidence-based approach to Green Belt management, as opposed to long-standing nostalgic and qualitative assumptions that the policy is sacrosanct. This paper is befitting with the narrative that the Green Belt should become more of a ‘technical’ policy through a (quantitative) spatial analysis of the social and environmental characteristics associated with Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council’s (SMBC) location in the West Midlands Green Belt (WMGB). The paper identifies several sustainably located sites, outside any environmental designations, which delineate the apparent potential to reform the policy and underscores the belief that the Green Belt is a blanket designation. Critically, the central pillar of this paper presents a first iteration of a spatial methodology that can be adapted in practice to influence future Green Belt decision-making, which could be extended regionally to mediate the policy’s interplay with politics. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.