Property owners who don’t want to be turfed off their land by the government face being effectively punished by a compulsory purchase order paying less than the open market rate for massive development projects wanted by the state to house the soaring, immigration-fuelled population.
Mass Migration Putting 'Unbearable' Strain on Housing Market, as Hundreds of Thousands of New Homes Needed to Meet DemandAs things stand now, while Green Belt land is by definition close to the most profitable cities, it is generally priced as agricultural land as planning rules classify it as unsuitable for building. But if that were to change, prices would soar to reflect demand, which is presumably precisely what the government wishes to prevent.
They had previously said: “The Green Belt is in the crosshairs of huge corporate housebuilders, developers and lobbyists who see it as a barrier to profit”, neatly underlining the idea that while the state may be forcing historically protected land into sale, in most cases it will be private property developers getting the land cheap and profiting from the policy.