The term grey belt has burst into the public conscious in recent months – ever since the new Labour Government entered office it's been bandied around regularly with the media focussing heavily on its development potential.

Labour has made strong commitments around house building. The biggest of those of course is the 1.5 million new homes target, to be built by the end of the current parliamentary term. ‘Concreting over the countryside' is common rhetoric when discussing house building, but will development of the grey belt be less controversial than green belt development?