e-Digest Statistics about: Land Use and Land Cover
Green Belts
Green Belts have been designated in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland to restrict the sprawl of built up areas on to previously undeveloped land and to preserve the character of historic towns. There are no Green Belts in Wales. In 1997, designated Green Belt land in England amounted to 1.65 million hectares, about 13 per cent of the country. Three per cent of all new dwellings built in 1997 were on Green Belt land, but over half of these were on previously developed land [5]. The current information is based on new methodology in which the extent of Green Belt is captured in digital (computerised) form from proposal maps in development plans. This approach provides much more reliable figures than those previously published in earlier years and therefore represents new baseline data. There are six Green Belts in Scotland covering around 156,600 hectares, about 2 per cent of the country, while in Northern Ireland Green Belts account for approximately 226,600 hectares, about 16 per cent of the country. Table 7 shows the changes to residential use within and outside 1997 designated Green Belts in England.
Further Information:
- Data Tables:
- 7 Changes to residential use within and outside 1997 designated Green Belts: 1994-2003, England XLS
- Internet Links:
- Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) Planning statistics
- DCLG: Land use change statistics
- References, further reading and links to other resources:
- [5] Department of Environment Transport and the Regions (2000), Local Planning Authority Green Belt Statistics: England 1997, DETR London
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Page last modified: 1 June 2005
Page published: 1 June 2005