England’s green belt can’t stay entirely untouched for ever, building design tsar says

Nicholas Boys Smith says we have ‘fallen out of love with the future’ and failed to build enough homes

Not all of the green belt should be “preserved in aspic for ever”, the government’s building design tsar has said, as he warned that with all but the highest earning young people priced out of buying, “desperation … to get more homes built is just going up”.

Nicholas Boys Smith, a former Tory adviser appointed by Michael Gove to run the Office for Place, which will advise on planning for new communities, said not all of the green belt “of low or no agricultural or amenity quality” should be protected for ever.