Why the Green Belt Isn’t Just Nice-to-Have — It’s Critical Infrastructure

The Green Belt’s most important job is to contain urban sprawl and a 2020 letter to CPRE London from the London Mayor confirms why this is so vital.

Strip away the planning jargon and here’s the reality: The Green Belt isn’t just countryside — it’s climate infrastructure. Why? Because this land quietly does the heavy lifting — preventing urban sprawl, cutting transport emissions, reducing flood risk, supporting wildlife, enabling food production, and giving people space to breathe.

And here’s the part that tends to get ignored: once you build on it, you don’t just lose green space — you lock in car-dependent, high-carbon development that works against every climate goal . The smarter play? Protect the Green Belt and focus growth where it actually makes sense — on brownfield land or real Grey Belt.

Read the CPRE article here