A new initiative to save green belt land across the UK has been supported Eleanor Laing MP.

The Epping Forest district MP has backed the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s ‘Save the Green Belt’ plan.

The campaign follows recently released data that shows that 226,000 houses are currently planned for development on green belt land in the UK.

Since 1955, when it first became national planning policy, the green belt has protected the countryside unnecessary development whilst aiding the regeneration of towns and cities across England.

Epping Forest is more than 90 per cent green belt and benefits from historic protections from the City of London as well, as the national planning framework.

Mrs Laing said: “We need new houses and we must support the expansion of businesses but if we lose some of our precious green belt we lose it forever.

“We must protect it and find other ways for expansion. At present I see no good reason to destroy our green belt - not when there is currently enough previously developed brownfield land available in England to build more than one million homes.”

Mrs Laing added: “There are, of course, some exceptional circumstances that mean small amounts of green belt have to be sacrificed, for example when brownfield land would otherwise go to waste, but those must be exceptions, not the norm.

“Epping Forest District Council is very good at protecting the green belt and I commend the council for that.

“I am pleased that this national campaign draws attention to the duty on local planning authorities to use this legislation properly and increases pressure on developers to act responsibly.”