Angela Rayner has announced an overhaul of England's planning rules to help deliver Labour's promise of 1.5 million new homes by 2029.
The deputy prime minister and housing secretary said local housing targets, scrapped by the Conservatives in December, would once again become mandatory.
Ms Rayner said the annual target would be increased from 300,000 homes to just over 370,000.
However, the target for London would be lowered from the previous 100,000 to about 80,000 — a target Ms Rayner said Mayor Sadiq Khan was "determined to rise to".
Ms Rayner said the plans “won’t be without controversy” but would make housing more affordable.
The Government plans to simplify building on certain parts of the green belt.
It has proposed that councils with green belt in their areas should review the boundaries if they cannot meet housing needs "through other means".
The BBC reported that the new guidance says councils should consider reclassifying previously developed land — or land that makes only a "limited contribution" towards goals such as protecting countryside and the character of historic towns — as "grey belt".
The Government will also change the method used to calculate how many houses are needed in an area to "better reflect the urgency of supply for local areas".
The plans will require 50 per cent of new housing to be affordable "with a focus on social rent".
English councils must return to incorporating Government-set housing targets into their long-term plans to allocate land.
So what is the “grey belt”?
Read on to find out.
What is the “grey belt”?
The term "grey belt" in the UK refers to areas on the urban fringe. They are often between built-up urban areas and the countryside or green belt.
These areas are typically characterised by a mixture of rural and urban features and may include semi-developed land, agricultural fields, and undeveloped open spaces.
Grey belts are often seen as zones of transition where urban sprawl might occur, but they are not as strictly protected as green belts.
The Government has said that the grey belt is a collection of "poor quality and ugly areas" on parts of protected land.
It said some existing green belt land will be re-designated as grey belt if a council's housing targets cannot be met.
What is the green belt?
The green belt refers to designated areas of open land surrounding urban areas where development is strictly controlled.
The concept was first introduced in London in 1938, before the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947 allowed local authorities to designate the status themselves.
The green belt aims to protect green spaces and prevent urban sprawl by preventing development on certain land.
Labour has previously given the example of a disused garage in Tottenham, north London, as a green belt site that cannot be developed into housing because it is protected.
According to Gov.UK, the green belt serves the following five purposes:
to check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas.
to prevent neighbouring towns merging into one another.
to assist in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment.
to preserve the setting and special character of historic towns.
to assist in urban regeneration by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land.
What are brownfield sites?
Brownfield sites are previously developed lands that are not used and may be potentially contaminated by past industrial or commercial activities.
These sites are often found in urban areas and can include former factories, warehouses, rail yards, and other types of industrial or commercial properties.
Ms Rayner said on July 30 that building on brownfield land must be “the first port of call”.
But, she added: “It’s only part of the answer. This is why we must make a more strategic system for green belt release to make it work for the 21st century.”
