More than a million homes possible on suitable brownfield land
Campaign to Protect Rural England
New figures from the Campaign to Protect Rural England show big increase in brownfield sites available for housing.
More than one million new homes could be built on brownfield sites across England, new research published by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has revealed.
The Government had described a previous CPRE estimate of around 1 million homes as “wildly over optimistic”. However, using the Government’s own pilot brownfield register scheme, CPRE has calculated that suitable brownfield sites can provide between 1.1 and 1.4 million new homes.
CPRE studied the findings of 53 councils that have published their data on suitable sites, and found that these areas alone could provide 273,000 homes. Comparing this new data with the last available data from 2010-2012, CPRE noted an 11% increase in the number of homes that could be provided on suitable sites, with planning permissions for such sites increasing by 21% and the number of suitable sites being identified by 50%.
Applying the same 11% increase to the 2010-2012 figures for the whole country gives a new estimated minimum capacity of 1.1 million homes on suitable brownfield sites.
It is also worth noting that the study of the 53 pilot registers produced a figure – 273,000 – that is both higher than previous Government estimates of countrywide brownfield housing capacity, and almost enough for the participating councils to meet their five-year housing targets without releasing any countryside for development.
Shaun Spiers, chief executive of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), said: “We need to build good, affordable homes quickly in the right places. No one is suggesting that we will be able to provide all the homes we need without ever building on a greenfield site. But the Government needs to do much more to reconcile its commitment both to build a million homes and to protect the countryside, including the Green Belt it recently described as ‘sacrosanct’.
“These official figures show that there is plenty of suitable brownfield land available, and that the supply of brownfield land continues to grow. The Government and local authorities must now ensure that developers use it. This will not only save countryside, it will help ensure thriving towns and cities.”
The Government created the brownfield registers pilot last year in order to secure a consistent set of data on brownfield sites suitable for development. The registers enable the Government to monitor its commitment that 90% of all brownfield sites have planning permission by 2020, and deliver 200,000 new homes on those sites. CPRE’s research suggests that this ambition for new homes should be much higher.
CPRE is calling for national policies that ensure brownfield development is prioritised over greenfield development and which support the provision of new homes on suitable brownfield sites. These include brownfield registers across the country, and an instruction for councils to refuse permission for greenfield sites where they would compete with the development of nearby brownfield land. Recent CPRE research showed that on average brownfield sites are developed half a year faster than greenfield while previous research had demonstrated that brownfield is a renewable resource.
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