Clear landscape and visual evidence on the openness of your site and its contribution to the purposes of the Green Belt, prepared by Chartered Landscape Architects.
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On a Green Belt site, the planning case usually turns on two questions: how open the site is, and how much it contributes to the purposes of the Green Belt. Both are, to a large extent, questions of how the land is seen. Our appraisals give the council, or an inspector, clear and independent landscape and visual evidence on both, prepared by a Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute with over 20 years of experience in the UK planning system.
Openness has a spatial dimension, which is largely a matter of measurement of footprint and volume and is usually set out by the planning consultant or architect. Our focus is the visual dimension: how open the site is perceived to be from public viewpoints, and how that would change with development.
How open the site is perceived to be from roads, public rights of way and the settlement edge, recorded through a site visit and viewpoint photography.
The extent to which landform, woodland, hedgerows and existing buildings enclose the site and limit its role in the wider open countryside.
The visual and landscape contribution the site makes to checking sprawl, keeping towns apart, safeguarding the countryside and the setting of historic towns.
How the proposal would be seen: whether it would read as part of the existing settlement edge or as an extension into open countryside.
A reasoned view on whether the site makes a strong contribution to purposes (a), (b) and (d), applying the national criteria for assessing Green Belt purposes.
Layout, height and planting measures that reduce visual effects and help define a strong, defensible new boundary.
Under the National Planning Policy Framework, grey belt is Green Belt land that is previously developed and/or does not strongly contribute to purposes (a), (b) or (d): checking the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas, preventing neighbouring towns merging, and preserving the setting and special character of historic towns. The 2026 revision of the NPPF brought the criteria for assessing those purposes into the Framework itself, and footnote 7 constraints no longer form part of the grey belt test, although they still bear on whether a scheme is acceptable.
In practice, judgements on sprawl, merging and setting rest heavily on visual evidence: how the site relates to the built-up edge, whether development would erode the perceived gap between settlements, and how the site is seen in views of a historic town. That is the evidence our appraisals provide. For a fuller discussion, see our article on Green Belt appropriateness and LVIAs.
Your site location, the council’s Green Belt assessment if you have it, and any layout or drawings.
We confirm the scope, whether an LVA or LVIA is also needed, and the fee and timescale.
A concise report with viewpoint photography and figures, ready to submit with your application or representation.
Fixed fees based on the scale and sensitivity of your site.
Where a Green Belt appraisal is prepared alongside an LVA or LVIA, we quote a combined fee. See our pricing.
Openness has a spatial and a visual dimension. The spatial side is essentially a matter of measurement: the footprint, volume and height of development compared with what is there now, and it is usually set out by the planning consultant or architect. The visual side is about how open the land is perceived to be from public viewpoints, and how that perception would change. That is a landscape and visual judgement, and it is where our appraisals focus.
Yes. Grey belt land is previously developed land and/or land that does not strongly contribute to Green Belt purposes (a), (b) or (d): checking the sprawl of large built-up areas, preventing neighbouring towns merging and preserving the setting of historic towns. Whether a site makes a strong contribution often depends on how it is seen: its visual relationship with the built-up edge, the visual gap between settlements and its containment by landform and vegetation. Our appraisal sets out that evidence clearly, against the national criteria for assessing Green Belt purposes.
Under the 2026 revision of the NPPF, footnote 7 constraints such as National Landscapes and designated heritage assets no longer form part of the test for whether land is grey belt. They still matter to whether a particular development is acceptable, so where a site also lies in the setting of a National Landscape, we address that in the same appraisal.
Our Green Belt and grey belt landscape appraisals start from £1,450 + VAT, including a site visit and viewpoint photography. Where the appraisal is commissioned alongside an LVA or LVIA, we quote a combined fee.
No. An LVIA assesses the landscape and visual effects of a proposal in general. A Green Belt appraisal answers a narrower planning question: how the site contributes to the openness and purposes of the Green Belt, visually and in landscape terms, and how development would change that. On larger or more sensitive sites the two are often prepared together.
Landscape and visual evidence for sites in the Green Belt around towns and cities across England.
An LVIA showing how new homes could sit within a fragmented urban-fringe landscape while maintaining the separation between settlements. Read the case study.
Appraisals of visual openness and the perceived gap between settlements on Metropolitan Green Belt sites.
Landscape and visual evidence for an extension in the Bristol and Bath Green Belt. Read the case study.
We work across England, Scotland and Wales from our three regional offices.
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