Brownfield space ‘sufficient for up to 920,000 new homes’

There is enough brownfield land available to support the development of an additional 920,000 new homes, the latest government figures claim.

The National Land Use database of previously developed land shows that in 2001 around 66,000 ha of brownfield land was available for development.

“These figures suggest that through working with them we can exceed our target of 60% of new developments on brownfield sites,” said housing and planning minister Lord Rooker.

English Partnerships chair Margaret Ford said the fact that nearly 21% of sites identified in the 1998 survey had now been developed proved the targets to be achievable.

But National Housing Federation policy officer Aaron Cahill warned that just because land was available did not mean it was suitable for housing. “Some of these sites may not be appropriate at the moment in terms of infrastructure like schools, hospitals, transport and travel-to-work times,” he explained.

House Builders Federation spokesman Pierre Williams said that in some areas extra public investment in infrastructure was needed, and new housing was also needed in rural areas where there was little or no previously used land for development.

Lovell Partnerships business improvement director Marcus Keys said: “A lot of these sites will require decontamination and they will have to lie dormant while they are cleaned up – and it’s still up to the local planning officer to decide whether a development can go ahead, so no matter how much land is available, it’s still up to individual planning departments.”

In response, the Council for the Protection of Rural England called for the government to raise the brownfield target from 60% to 75%.