Wait long enough and the discussion about the housing supply crisis always ends up at the green belt, like the planning system’s Godwin’s Law. We arrived there again last week when shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy told us that a Labour government would “take on the taboo around the green belt and declassify the poor-quality parts.”

It is a politically brave position. The green belt is the most recognised part of our planning system, but it is also the most misunderstood. Polling for CPRE, a NIMBY campaign group, revealed that while 64% of the public thought the green belt should be protected from development, 71% didn’t really know what it was.

To recap, the green belt is simply a planning designation, designed to stop our towns and cities expanding outwards. It isn’t a kitemark of landscape value, nor is it a quality seal for ecological richness - we have a whole host of other designations that do those things.