Greenbelt land

[Harriette Pennison]

Obtain the leading London Green Belt Architects for your requirements with our helpful compendium.

The designs of green belt architects are characterised by creative use of light and space, lateral thinking, attention to detail and the careful selection of natural materials. If you need architectural design drawings for a home extension, a new build house or a commercial building? Or perhaps you need project management services? Green belt architects would love to hear from you. All green belt projects, big or small, have to start somewhere and communication is a key part of the entire process. The metropolitan green belt’s definitive aim is to restrict the urban sprawl of cities. In turn, this safeguards the surrounding countryside from development, enforcing the reuse of derelict land or ‘brownfield sites’. Additionally, the green belt acts as a barrier, stopping neighbouring towns and cities from merging. The green belt notion also protects settlements with special historic character from overdevelopment. There’s no sugar-coating the fact that London is in the middle of possibly its greatest housing crisis. The average price of a home in the capital in 2020 is over £600,000 – and over £1.5m in Kensington & Chelsea – and social housing waiting-list figures show that there are almost 350,000 houses in demand. Policy and guidance has experienced limited change since 1955, and the recent Planning for the Future White Paper made no real reference to any meaningful update of Green Belt policy. However, the concept of ‘openness’ has been a constant topic of debate and due to the housing shortage, pressure for development on Green Belt land is ever mounting. Getting planning permission for your development on the Green Belt may be easier than you think. If you have any questions, book a consultation with a green belt architect today for an in-depth conversation.



Green belt architects believe that good design is a crucial part of the planning process. Getting the design of a project right is critical to gaining a successful planning consent and avoiding unnecessary delay and costs. Green belt architects can do a comprehensive survey of your property to generate the best architectural designs. They take measurements and check the nature of the place to start work according to the proposed requirements by you. If the Green Belt is to be reviewed it should be as an environmental resource, not as a means for providing houses. Given the ragged edge of the urban fringe, the mix of uses and range of urban and rural characteristics of the Green Belt and the need for suburban intensification, detailed surveys are required. A Chartered Practice of Architects providing Architecture Planning Services will provide you with the reassurance of knowing that they provide a broad range of architectural design expertise in line with the RIBA’s Plan of Work. You may be asking yourself how does New Forest National Park Planning fit into all of this?
 

The Most Sustainable Option

A green belt architect will also work with landowners looking to develop houses on their land, guiding them through the planning and development process. They are particularly experienced in providing innovative solutions for development on difficult sites, for example in conservation areas and on green-belt land. Green Belt boundaries are only altered where exceptional circumstances are fully evidenced and justified, through the preparation or updating of plans. Strategic policies should establish the need for any changes to Green Belt boundaries, having regard to their intended permanence in the long term, so they can endure beyond the plan period. Architects of buildings for the green belt believe that building design plays a critical role in addressing climate change and they know everything there is to know about environmental sustainability. The construction of a building can drastically reduce the ecological and hydrological function of the land in which it’s built upon, and so a sustainable building should look to minimise this and reduce those impacts. Net-Zero Energy homes are a hot topic these days, especially as prices for rooftop solar photovoltaics and LED lighting continue to plummet. More than ever, net-zero homes can be built for little to no added expense, and are often cheaper when considering the outgoings. Formulating opinions on matters such as Green Belt Planning Loopholes can be a time consuming process.

With planning chiefs currently compelled to judge each green belt application on its individual merits, and ignore previous work, people are subverting planning law “by stealth”. Green belt architectural businesses aim to respond to the particular context of each site and believe that every project should belong intimately to its place. All their work is framed by the need to address the challenges of the climate emergency. Extensions to green belt propertiesallowed by permitted development can also subsequently be traded in for brand new replacement development of the same volume on the same site so it is worth talking to us to establish the exact route by which a larger property might be achieved in this way. Designing a building’s form and appearance can no longer be carried out in isolation. Building services, fabric and controlled fittings are now all intrinsically linked. All local plans, as they progress over time are reviewed and this usually results in some land that was previously protected from development in the local plan, being reconsidered and allocated for various land uses and developments. The concept of boundary and policy reviews in planning is therefore very much part of the process, that is repeated over a period of years. Maximising potential for Architect London isn't the same as meeting client requirements and expectations.
 

A Greener Future

There are people whom see the Green Belt as protected areas, recreational spaces – the “green lungs” of the city – adding to the character and the quality of life of an area. They see the Green Belt as areas of significant landscape quality, protecting valuable agricultural land and wildlife habitats which enhance biodiversity. For our green belts to serve us better, we must first serve them better, by not just grudgingly accepting them, but through a process of better defining and celebrating the border between rural and urban – of finding and enjoying our limits. Local councils consistently fail to consider the environmental impact of building on Green Belt countryside, and merely pay lip-service to the environment. Judging by their published Local Plans, there is little if any understanding among local councils of the vital role that the Green Belt plays as a ‘climate safety belt’. Any development in the Green Belt should have a minimal effect on the openness and appearance of the Green Belt. The physical effect buildings and structures have on the Green Belt should be minimised at all times. Every aspect of human society has had a profound impact on the environment so it is of no surprise that our buildings can also affect our surroundings. Architecture does not exist in a vacuum, therefore understanding how our buildings interact with the world around us is very important because in most cases the impact tends to sway towards the negative. Conducting viability appraisals with Net Zero Architect is useful from the outset of a project.

Proposals for developments in the green belt should make use of appropriate materials which respect and reinforce local character and identity. The use of materials which contribute to sustainable development will be encouraged. Generally, the government’s position on planning permission for Green Belt development is one of extreme caution to avoid controversy. Their objective is to protect Green Belts at all costs and to encourage developers to build on brownfield (and non-green belt) countryside. Planning applications to change the way land is used will need to show that the openness of the Green Belt will not be affected and there is no conflict with the reason the land was made part of the Green Belt. When reviewing extension plans for properties in the green belt, the local council will take account of the degree to which the building has already been extended, and the effect of any further extension. You will need to consider several factors, such as the design, form and size of your extension. Normally the planning system is set up to allow development to proceed unless there is a harmful element to it. However, in Green Belts all development is considered inappropriate and therefore harmful. But, although it may seem that they are established to prevent any development, this isn't the case. Research around GreenBelt Land remains patchy at times.
 

The Power Of Design

Green belts have a presumption against development and thus little incentive to be positively managed for environmental, community or economic purposes. This leads to degraded landscapes that, while having a valid planning function, produce limited benefit to communities and the environment – unless of course you are lucky enough to live in or next to one. Green Belt designation does not guarantee public access and nor is this space necessarily a demand of peoples leisure time. Swathes of the Green Belt are in fact brownfield sites or are not deemed worthy of other planning designations defining beauty or interest. Has the time has come for the belt to be loosened on this utopian misconception? Development opportunities in the largely undeveloped parts of the UK are increasingly scarce and the ever increasing emphasis that the Government places on sustainable development allied with the protection of the countryside and landscape has the potential to result in the stagnation and ultimate decline of their rural communities. You can get extra information regarding London Green Belt Architects in this House of Commons Library article.
 

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