It has been reported in the press and blogs that it is illegal to build on Green Belt Land in the UK or that Green Belt land has virtually no prospects of development. Both of these statements are untrue.

In the UK, a shortage of housing has reached crisis levels, with some 4.8million houses required over the next 15-20 years. Even if every single piece of brownfield land (land that had been developed before) could be instantly made available and turned into houses overnight, there would still be a shortage of around 1.5 million houses. So, by definition, these houses would, and still will, have to be built on land that hasn't been built on before (green belt land). And Green Belt land is built on every year in the UK, despite what many bloggers will say.

The figures for Green Belt development are published by the UK Government every year. Over 1,100 hectares of green belt have been built on every year since 1997, and over 45,000 homes have been built on green belt land – the size of the City of Bath – since 1997.

Green Belts contain some major developed sites such as factories, collieries, power stations, water and sewage treatment works, military establishments, civil airfields, hospitals, and research and education establishments

See also - Daily Mail article regarding Green Field Sites.