So the suburbanisation of villages beyond the greenbelt has become increasingly problematic as improvements in public transport and communications generally, combined with rising incomes, has spurred people to move out with cities, despite greenbelt policy designed to halt this process.

These competing land-use pressures were brought into focus in recent years when Natural England and CPRE on the one hand produced a report on English greenbelts and established that greenbelt policy was ‘highly effective’ (Smith 2014). On the other hand in 2011 the Institute of Directors called for green belt policy to be relaxed to stimulate house development. Then in 2012 the government encouraged local authorities to review their greenbelt designated land and if they were able to free up land for development, their local plan examination process would be prioritised.

The UK planning minister (Nick Bowles) in November 2012 identified that a total of 388,000 hectares in rural England needs to be re-designated to make way for current and future housing needs . According to the Minister, England has 9% of its land developed and if this could rise by a further 2-3% then current and future housing needs could be met.

In March 2012 changes to the National Planning Policy Framework in England focused on: “… reforms to make the planning system less complex and more accessible, to protect the environment and to promote sustainable growth.”