With the government looking to build houses on green-belt land, is now a good time to buy cheap land in...?

green-belt areas with the hope of selling it on for a huge profit once planning permission to build has been granted on it by councils following government instructions.

i.e. is it a good investment?

UK question.

Investing in land is always worthwhile if you take a medium to long term view or you know how to get planning changed in the short term.

I know this is not a forum but the view expressed on greenbelt protection is wrong. There is a bandwagon which has been running for decades regarding the greenbelt and it is totally wrong. My understanding is that the Greenbelt, something of a misnomer anyway, was set up in the 50s to preserve sufficient farmland to produce enough food for the UK to be self sufficient in the event of another World War. Things have changed. It has been hijacked as a tool for controlling adverse planning thinking and the public have been hoodwinked in to thinking that 'greenbelt development' is the concreting over of the whole of the UK. Rubbish. The problem is the distribution of development. It is concentrated, squeezed in. Mention building in a village and the public and the planners go berserk. That though, is where building should be happening, both residential and commercial. All over, nobody taking much. Villages and the countryside are dying because there has not been enough development. Too many people squashed into cities and towns. Build up the villages, get people living and working in their areas, surrounded by countryside. A village is a place to live and work. It is a 'community machine', the underlying mechanics of a Country. I am not talking about 1000 house estates. If every village in the UK took another 20-40 homes nobody would really notice. Put in some offices, workshops, industry, manufacturing and get things living again. I could go on for ages - might start a website.

My answer is yes, chose wisely and invest but be prepared to wait.

Any time is a good time to buy cheap land. Real estate is always a good investment because land is the only thing they aren't making more of. There is a finite amount of usable land on this planet. Owning a piece of it will always be worthwhile.

OK, soapbox time. Yes any land on which planning permission is granted is a good investment in the short term, but in the long term, if the green belt, (which is relatively small) is built over, your and future generations life, will become intolerable.
Green in nature, equals the very air we breathe, substituting that with buildings, which will meet a short term,(relatively) need is criminal and short sighted.
Where are this generations great engineers and civic planners who can design new ways of living?
Building more boxes in more places can not be the answer.