Nearly half a million new homes are set to be built on land that will soon be released from the Green Belt, study shows.

The annual State of the Green Belt report from the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has revealed that 460,000 homes are planned to be built on Green Belt land.

Local authorities are only permitted to build on Green Belt land under ‘exceptional circumstances’.

CPRE also argued that building on Green Belt land is not solving the affordable housing crisis.

Last year, they report, 72% of homes built on greenfield sites within the Green Belt were unaffordable according to the Government’s definition. Once the 460,000 houses are built, the percentage of unaffordable homes will increase to 78%.

‘We are being sold a lie by many developers. As they sell off and gobble up the Green Belt to build low density, unaffordable housing, young families go on struggling to afford a place to live,’ said Tom Fyans, director of campaigns and policy at CPRE.

‘The affordable housing crisis must be addressed with increasing urgency, while acknowledging that far from providing the solution, building on the Green Belt only serves to entrench the issue.

‘The government is failing in its commitment to protect the Green Belt – it is being eroded at an alarming rate.

‘But it is essential, if the Green Belt is to fulfil its main purposes and provide 30 million of us with access to the benefits of the countryside, that the redevelopment of brownfield land is prioritised, and Green Belt protection strengthened.’