Brownfield Sites (Hansard, 13 January 2004)

§ Keith Hill

Through Planning Policy Guidance Note 3 Housing (PPG3) the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has introduced a series of tough new measures designed to meet the country's future housing needs in the most sustainable way possible. This includes a sequential approach which gives priority to re-using brownfield sites in urban areas in preference to developing greenfield sites. In addition, we have a national target that, by 2008, 60 per cent. of additional 721W housing should be provided on previously-developed land and through conversions of existing buildings. Performance against this target has risen from 58 per cent. in 1998 to 64 per cent. in 2002 for England as a whole. In the south-east, including London, the proportion is about 75 per cent.

The Sustainable Communities Plan sets out a strategy for carefully planned, sustainable growth which will protect communities from unplanned suburban sprawl. Much of the £610 million the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is ploughing into the four growth areas through the Sustainable Communities Plan will go into reclaiming poor quality brownfield land, or into transport improvements which will enable high density developments. For instance, the development of new communities at Ebbsfleet, Eastern Quarry and Barking Reach within the Thames Gateway all involve the redevelopment of large redundant industrial sites. However, in some cases sustainable urban extensions involving some greenfield land will be necessary.

Detailed planning of individual sites within the housing growth areas is not yet complete and it is not therefore possible to provide a figure for the proportion of development which will occur on previously developed land. The sequential approach described above will, however, apply.