Brownfield Land - The Emperor’s new clothes?

It is with great excitement that I read the new report from the CPRE that said 800k new homes could “rapidly” be built on brownfield sites across the country. It also says that there are lots more brownfield sites coming forward. Now, I am a big fan of the CPRE and I am not for a moment suggesting that they are factually incorrect with their report that suggests 800k new homes could be built on brownfield land. 

However, I am afraid, I do need to give this a bit of a reality check. Brownfield sites may look like they are easy pickings, you just whack in a simple application, the land is previously developed and essentially all you need is a Local Plan to allocate it for housing, et voilà! 800k new homes are on their way, you can go off to Ikea and stary buying furniture. 

Or is it that easy? 

I cut my teeth on Enfield Council where the old Enfield Rifle Factory site was redeveloped for housing. Turns out they used heavy metals and the site remediation was rather complex and involved digging out the top soil (and disposing of it in a responsible manner… it did slightly glow in the dark) putting in a membrane and then building the houses. This was NOT a cheap exercise. I won’t bore you with the saga since but suffice to say, it wasn’t the raging success people thought it might have been. 

These sites are absolutely plagued with a plethora of problems. We are working on a number of them. There are sites being held up due to ground remediation, due to viability, due to environmental issues, due to historic setting issues (like neighbouring listed buildings and conservation areas), due to the site next door still not coming forward and my personal favourite, a brownfield site that got covered in plants (as they do) that received a DEFRA order to be replanted rather than being released for homes that already have planning permission.

So, it begs the question, are brownfield sites the silver bullet to solve the crisis and rapidly deliver more than half the Government’s housing target? 

NO is the short answer. 

Some, I admit, will come forward quicker than others, but most of them will be plagued by problems with remediation work and actually delivering them. Brownfield sites are expensive things to remediate, and the reality is that vast numbers of them will be killed off by viability. If the policy requirements for affordable homes are strictly enforced and the site needs to deliver on BNG etc. etc. no commercial developer will be able to afford to develop them. Only the really big sites where the quantum can justify the cost will be delivered but the little sites will just sit there like rotting teeth.  

So, my analysis of the situation is, brownfield sites may deliver some homes but to think that they will rapidly deliver 800k homes is simply the Emperor parading around in his “new clothes”. 

Until next week,

Henry