Worcester Green Belt Decision Could Set Dangerous Example for Developers, Warns Councillor

Claines councillor Jessie Jagger has warned that any decision to allow substantial housing development on Worcester’s Green Belt could have implications far beyond the city.

Cllr Jagger stressed that an individual planning decision in Worcester would not create a binding legal precedent requiring other councils to approve similar developments. Planning applications are considered on their individual facts and against the relevant planning policies.

However, she argues that an approval could nevertheless be pointed to by land promoters and developers elsewhere as an example of substantial housing development being permitted on Green Belt land.

That distinction is particularly important against the backdrop of the Government’s drive to substantially increase housebuilding nationally and the considerable housing pressures facing authorities across England.

Cllr Jessie Jagger said “This wouldn’t create a legal precedent in the strict sense. Every planning application has to be determined on its own merits.

“But examples matter. If substantial development is allowed on protected Green Belt in Worcester, developers elsewhere will inevitably look at what happened here and ask why they shouldn’t be allowed to do the same.

“There is a housing need in communities across the country. If housing need becomes enough to justify sacrificing Green Belt, wealthy developers effectively have a licence to print money from land whose development value can be transformed by planning permission.”

Cllr Jagger drew a comparison with international concern over deforestation of the Amazon during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, arguing that decisions which appear local can cumulatively have much wider consequences.

She added “People around the world were rightly concerned about the destruction of the Amazon during Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency. The lesson is that protections matter precisely when there is enormous financial pressure to remove them.

“Worcester may be one city making one planning decision, but we should understand the example our decisions can set.”

Cllr Jagger said that the need for new homes should be taken seriously, but argued that development of protected Green Belt should not become an easy answer to the national housing shortage.