Cash boost to crackdown on illegal building on nation’s Green Belt
- Councils across country to receive share of nearly £2 million to crackdown on illegal development, including on the Green Belt
- Local authorities from Cheshire to the Chilterns will benefit from new fund
- The move is part of the Housing Minister’s drive to protect the Green Belt for future generations
Councils across the country are set to benefit from a slice of nearly £2 million to crack down on illegal developments on the nation’s Green Belt, Housing Minister Esther McVey MP has announced today (12 September 2019).
Local authorities will be able to use the money to hire enforcement officers, use new technology, and help meet the legal costs of bringing rogue developers to task for their illegal developments.
Speaking at the annual RESI Convention in Newport today, the Housing Minister announced that 37 councils would be receiving a total of up to £50,000 each to help with the clampdown.
The Housing Minister Rt Hon Esther McVey MP said:
Once the Green Belt is built on it’s often gone for good that’s why we are determined to protect it. The public have told us loud and clear they want it kept for future generations to enjoy.
The funding announced today will help councils clamp down on rogue developers, giving the areas with the highest levels of Green Belt the funds needed to punish those who build illegally.
Reforms to the national planning rulebook last year maintained the strong protections on the Green Belt, which protect an area’s character and prevent urban sprawl. Only in exceptional circumstances can land in the Green Belt be built on.
Alongside the cash boost for councils, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is teaming up with the Royal Town Planning Institute to overhaul the national enforcement handbook.
The updated handbook will provide the latest best practice and expertise on shutting down illegal building and preventing it from happening, whilst ensuring developers obtain full planning permission before a shovel hits the ground.
Councils will be receiving cash from the Planning Delivery Fund – a one off cash boost to assist with the costs of tackling unauthorised and illegal development in areas with significant areas of Green Belt land.
The councils who applied and were successful in receiving the funding are as follows:
- Cheshire West and Chester
- Sevenoaks
- South Staffordshire
- Epping Forest
- Central Bedfordshire
- Kirklees
- Bath and North East Somerset
- Guildford
- Wakefield
- Tandridge
- Doncaster
- South Cambridgeshire
- Barnsley
- South Gloucestershire
- Calderdale
- York
- Stratford-on-Avon
- Rugby
- Rotherham
- Mole Valley
- Bromsgrove
- Warwick
- East Hertfordshire
- Staffordshire Moorlands
- Chiltern
- North Warwickshire
- Tonbridge and Malling
- Rushcliffe
- Windsor and Maidenhead
- North Somerset
- Cheshire East
- Selby
- Bradford
- Leeds
- Shropshire
- Northumberland
- Dorset Council