Developer Canton has won a planning appeal for 100 homes on an unallocated site in the Hertfordshire green belt in a decision experts say could set a precedent for other schemes.

Planning inspector Christa Masters concluded that the provision of housing, in the context of a “bleak” lack of housing supply in the councils covered by the application, was enough to demonstrate the necessary “very special circumstances” which are needed to justify speculative applications on green belt land.

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