A cross bench group of MPs and peers have called for "scrappy" Green Belt land near train stations to be built on.

The document argues that one million homes could be built on land classified as Metropolitan Green Belt within a kilometre of TFL or National Rail stations no more than 45 minutes from central London.

The only exceptions would be land afforded special protective status, such as Birds and Habitats directives or designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

Labour’s Siobhain McDonagh, MP for Mitcham and Morden and lead signatory on the submission, said: “There’s a garage site a stone’s throw away from Tottenham Hale Station that is designated as Green Belt, but there is not a blade of grass to be seen.

"In fact, apart from a green car parked in the garage, there is no green to be seen anywhere.

"Why does this matter? Because this Green Belt designation has prevented a Housing Association from building affordable homes on the site.

"Within a 10-minute walk of London’s train stations are dozens of scrappy plots of so-called ‘Green Belt’ land. They are not flowing fields; far from it.

"Unless you were told of its designation, you would never dream of identifying it as Green Belt. But, when aggregated, this is land that could provide enough space for 1m new homes in our capital – a big contribution to solving the capital’s housing crisis."

Although the various protected statuses of land mean certain tracts might or might not be available, in Epping land to the east of the station could be opened up for development.

While housing is much more densely packed around Loughton Station, there is plenty of unbuilt on land within a kilometre to the south and west.

In Debden, land to the south west of the station where the industrial estate currently stands is not Green Belt.

However, 200m further down and fields surrounding Topgolf Chigwell are currently protected and not built upon.

The submission was made to the consultation on the Government’s proposed National Planning Policy Framework.

London’s green belt covered 514,000 hectares last year, almost one third of the national total, and virtually unchanged since 2014.