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<p>This Government has a clear manifesto commitment to maintain the strong protections
for Green Belt set out in our National Planning Policy Framework. The Framework makes
clear that a local authority may alter the shape of its Green Belt only in exceptional
circumstances, using the Local Plan process. The Framework does not define ‘exceptional
circumstances’. Where necessary, and in consultation with the community, a local authority
can propose a Green Belt boundary change as part of its Local Plan process, but the
revised Plan is subject to rigorous, formal examination by a planning inspector.</p><p>In
the Housing White Paper, <em>Fixing our broken housing market</em>, we proposed that
a local authority should be able to adjust a Green Belt boundary only when it demonstrates
that it has examined all other reasonable options for meeting its identified development
needs<strong>,</strong> including:</p><p>- the effective use of suitable brownfield
land;</p><p>- the potential offered by under-used land;</p><p>- optimising the density
of development; and</p><p>- exploring whether other authorities can help to meet some
of the identified development requirement.</p><p>We have been analysing the responses
not only to the White Paper, but also to our later consultation on the assessment
of local housing need. We will be announcing our conclusions on both as soon as possible,
alongside a consultation draft of a revised National Planning Policy Framework.</p>
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