Greenfield Land
Greenfield land is simply land that has not been developed before. Greenbelt is often mistaken by the media and particularly the general public, who see them as one of the same thing. Greenfield land can be beautiful countryside and can also be vacant and unattractive scrub land next to existing development. With future development in mind the price of greenfield land has risen steeply in the past few years.

The right type of land
The Government introduced reforms in 2004 as part of the 'Sustainable Communities Plan' which is based on the assumption that everyone has the right to a decent home. The reforms effectively are designed to make the planning system faster and more flexible and to release more land to get more homes built. The major aim is to use land which has previously been developed.

However returning this land and redundant buildings to economic use is far more complex than developing on former agricultural, or 'greenfield', sites.

The target is that at least 70% of new development will occur on brownfield land, which in essence means that the remaining 30% or so will use greenfield land.