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Green Belts

Volume 390: debated on Thursday 3 June 1943

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63.

asked the Minister of Town and Country Planning how it is intended that local authorities should proceed to acquire land for their post-war housing estates, even enough to comply with their first-year programme, until the Government has decided upon its policy regarding green belts surrounding built-up areas?

As my right hon. Friend the Minister of Health informed the hon. Member on 10th May, there are many areas in which housing sites can be chosen which do not raise any such question. In any case, close co-operation between my Department, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture, both in the region and at headquarters, will secure that sites are not selected without due regard to the need for green belts and to other requirements of good planning.

Is the country to infer from that answer that green belts have been adopted, as a policy, by my right hon. Friend's Department?

The position is that, where they can be provided, green belts are desirable.

Would my right hon. Friend be kind enough to answer my question? We all know that green belts are desirable, but is it the policy of the Ministry of Town and Country Planning to provide green belts?