We often hear about the ‘green belt’ – but it doesn’t just refer to any old countryside. Here, in the Garden of England, huge swathes of the county are designated as Metropolitan green belt or Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs). With the government still talking up housing targets and Labour eyeing planning reform, could we soon see hundreds of properties built on Kent’s protected landscapes? Firstly, what is the green belt? The term was coined in the late 19th century, but the green belt as it exists today was created by the 1947 Town & Country Planning Act under Clement Attlee’s Lab…