Better places to live

The countryside is our most precious natural resource, so CPRE makes the case for a more balanced, environmentally sustainable use of land. We’re working to ensure that the Green Belt is retained and not sacrificed for development. Once our open spaces are lost to the developer, they are gone forever.

We campaign for a ‘brownfield-first’ policy in all Surrey districts, encouraging previously developed sites to be regenerated, where appropriate. To do this we help local communities identify suitable brownfield development sites in urban areas. We are also working with our partners to protect Surrey’s countryside and quality of life from the impact of traffic congestion on our roads, the continuing threat of new runways at Heathrow and Gatwick airports and increases in flights over our county.

Degrading the county’s natural environment through over-development and loss of green space will ultimately harm our economy by damaging Surrey’s quality of life.