The Adam Smith Institute has called for destruction of 180 square kilometres of London’s green belt for housing development, arguing that green belt has ‘negative environmental effects’.

A new report from the free-market enthusiasts called The Green Noose: An Analysis of Green Belts and Proposals for Reform says 1m homes should be built on the areas of London’s green belt within walking distance of a railway station.

The paper, by senior fellow Tom Papworth, says 2.5m homes should be built over the next decade on 0.5% of England’s land mass.

That would include 3.7% of London’s green belt.

“Green belts are actively harmful to the environment as a third is intensive farmland and it necessitates more road and railway construction,” said Papworth who added, “protecting green belts puts greater pressure on urban greenspace which people visit far more regularly.”

“To solve the housing crisis, the best policy is to liberate the land,” said the Institute’s deputy director Sam Bowman, adding, “the green belt is a post-war anachronism that is not fit for purpose in modern Britain. Whether you want private sector or social housing to build the new homes, the first step must be to reform it.”