The West Midlands Green Belt is a statutory green belt environmental and planning policy that regulates the rural space within the West Midlands region of England. It is contained within the counties of the West Midlands, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Essentially, the function of the green belt is to more rigorously manage development around the cities, towns and villages in the large West Midlands conurbations centred around Birmingham and Coventry, discouraging convergence.[1] It is managed by local planning authorities on guidance from central government.