green belt

Councillors turned down the development which would be on green belt land.

As secretary of professional support group the Empty Homes Network, he wants to raise the profile of empty homes among the public and politicians, as an alternative to building on the green belt land.

"My greatest dream is to plant trees in Africa's Green Belt," Ellyanne says, referring to the initiative to halt the advancing Sahara Desert by planting trees from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east.

If there is not enough land to meet housing targets, councils will be encouraged to build on a new category of "grey belt" land, which Labour says will consist of poor-quality parts of the green belt - areas of land that are protected from most forms of development.

It wants to reintroduce housing targets for councils and make it easier for developers to build on so-called “grey” parts of the green belt.