Villagers Hear That the ‘Grey Belt’ Policy Should Be Suspended Until Reviewed

Published on: 13 Oct, 2026
Updated on: 13 Oct, 2026

Tom Walker addressing the East Horsley meeting on the grey belt. Present at the meeting was the leader of the West Surrey Shadow Council, Paul Follows (indicated with white arrow).

By Martin Giles

The Government’s “grey belt” policy is leaving Guildford Borough more vulnerable to speculative development proposals than ever before, East Horsley villagers heard at a meeting arranged by Rural Roar campaigner Paula Moss on Friday evening (October 9).

The meeting began with a presentation from Cllr Moss (a parish councillor at Effingham). She wants Ministers to suspend use of the grey belt policy until it has been reviewed and amended.

Guildford’s “grey belt” according to AECOM Study.

The audience of over 100 people heard criticism of the AECOM report, commissioned by GBC. Although “grey belt” land was originally described as poor quality green belt, such as “derelict garages”, the report concluded that 83 per cent of the borough could be designated grey belt, even green fields or common land. Even “National Landscape” land (previously Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) was included.

The panel at the East Horsley meeting on the grey belt. From left: Paula Moss, Cllr Catherine Young, Zöe Franklin MP, Claire Upton-Brown, Cllr Fiona White and Cllr George Potter.

Guildford MP Zöe Franklin (Lib Dem) stressed how hard she and other opposition MPs had been pressing the Government on the issue but said it did not seem to want to listen to concerns, a Minister labelling one complaining MP a Nimby.

She said that what Guildford really needed was more social housing, a need expressed by several others in recent times from across the political spectrum, but under existing policies social housing can be difficult to create while so-called affordable housing at 80 per cent of the market rate was still unaffordable to most.

Ms Franklin and the councillors present said that just because the AECOM report had designated areas liable to grey belt classification it did not mean development was inevitable. However better protection might not be possible until the new Local Plan was in place in 2029.

But it was generally accepted that under the new grey belt criteria, green belt designation could no longer be used to prevent villages merging. This was viewed as a major handicap.

Cllr Paula Moss

The audience heard short speeches from other panel members – local councillors Catherine Young (R4GV), Fiona White (Lib Dem, GBC’s lead councillor for Planning), and George Potter (Lib Dem), as well as GBC’s Head of Planning, Claire Upton-Brown, and MP Zöe Franklin.

Questions from the audience were then invited.

Tom Walker (see picture above) expressed frustration over the perceived loss of protection for the green belt and suggested that the housing crisis was actually a jobs crisis, driven by an economic concentration in the South East.

Cllr David Evans

The Conservative shadow councillor for the Horsleys, David Evans, asked for the Local Plan process to be sped up but was told that was not possible as strict Government-mandated processes and timelines had to be adhered to.

Resident Harry Eve suggested challenging the standard methodology used to calculate the housing target, saying this was a tactic used in East Hampshire. However GBC’s head of Planning said this rarely produced significant changes and, instead, robust evidence had to be produced.

Paula Moss urged everyone present to support her Rural Roar campaign and sign her petition: “Launch a rural proofing review& suspendthe use of the the grey belt test”.