Green belt threatened by house-building blitz

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Ministers have promised three million new homes by 2020, to be built mainly on brownfield sites, including derelict or vacant plots.

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New builds threaten to eat up the green belt

But an investigation by the Social Market Foundation think-tank concluded that around two million would have to go either on undeveloped countryside or on the green belt which guards against urban sprawl around towns and cities.

The report casts serious doubt on the ability of brownfield land to support the proposed development.

Even if new homes were built on a density equivalent to London, only 2.1million could be built on brownfield land - and that would mean paving over some parks and gardens.

On a more realistic housing density, almost two million homes would need to be built on previously undeveloped land.

The SMF concedes, however, that green belt can include scrubland and former industrial sites and is often not as green as people believe.

It says: "There may be a case for reconsidering the future of the green belt, which often protects neither wildlife nor areas of outstanding beauty."

Tory spokesman Eric Pickles said the green belt faced "a sustained assault from Labour's army of bulldozers and concrete mixers, with communities powerless to resist Whitehall's Soviet-style targets".