York green belt review sparks council planning row

Cllr Andrew Hollyer, planning spokesperson for City of York Council’s Liberal Democrat opposition, said a green belt review risked years of uncertainty and speculative development while house builders sit on existing sites.

Council Labour planning executive member Cllr Michael Pavlovic said updates would significantly reduce such risks and accused the Liberal Democrats of making misleading claims about things that would never happen.

A spokesperson for Labour Mayor David Skaith said the review was being done amid a housing crisis and he would not sit back and let get it worse.

Garry Taylor, council city development lead, said the work would help shape York’s next Local Plan following national changes and ensure much-needed homes are built in a respectful way.

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The row comes after the authority and neighbouring North Yorkshire Council have invited bids for a £180,000 contract for an assessment of the region’s green belt.

The work, backed by the mayoral York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, is set to support the drafting of new Local Plans for development by both councils.

The assessment is set to see green belt land categorised against new national policies but it would not release parcels of it for development or decide on future use.

It follows national planning policy changes including the introduction of a new category of land dubbed ‘grey belt’, brownfield and previously developed areas of the green belt.

Wider national planning reforms have been enacted as part of Government aims to speed up house-building.

Changes have resulted in York starting work on a new Local Plan following the adoption of its first since the 1950s in February 2025.

Mr Taylor said the current Local Plan including green belt boundaries remain in place.

He added evidence gathered by the review, funded in part by a £70,000 Government grant, would inform wider work on the new Local Plan and the region’s Spatial Development Strategy.

But Cllr Hollyer said reopening the debate on the green belt put the certainty brought about by adopting the Local Plan at risk.

The opposition planning spokesperson said: “Some developers will simply bank the sites they already have and focus their efforts on securing permission for even more green belt development elsewhere.

“York Central is one of the biggest brownfield redevelopment opportunities anywhere in the UK, we should be focused on getting homes built on sites that have already been allocated, regenerating brownfield land and delivering the infrastructure York needs to cope with the extra housing.

“We can meet York’s housing needs without launching an assault on the green belt.”

Labour’s Cllr Pavlovic said national regulations had moved on since York’s Local Plan was adopted and it now needed to reflect those changes.

Cllr Michael Pavlovic, City of York Council’s Labour administration’s housing and planning executive member (Image: City of York Council)

The planning executive member said: “Updating our Green Belt evidence now will provide us with a robust evidence base for future planning decisions, meaning we significantly reduce the risk of such development.

“It’s disappointing to see Liberal Democrats seeking to mislead the public and scaremonger, on what is a technical requirement.

“Residents should take what they say with a large bucket of salt.”

A spokesperson for the mayor said the Liberal Democrats were misrepresenting what is happening.

The spokesperson said: “The mayor has a statutory duty to produce a spatial plan for the region set out by the Government.

“It does not mean that great expanses of the green belt will suddenly be developed on.”