The message could not have been clearer. In his 2016 manifesto for his first mayoralty Sadiq Khan laid out his position: “I will oppose building on the green belt, which is even more important today than it was when it was created.” How times have changed. Last week in a speech that represents one of the biggest shifts in planning policy in and around London since the post-war period, the Mayor was singing a different tune.
He admitted he had shifted his opinion of what he once described as the “sacred” status of the green belt, saying current protection is “wrong, out-of-date and simply unsustainable”.
