§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what is the estimated acreage of contaminated land in England; and what proposals his Department has to encourage the reclamation of contaminated land. [18143]
§ Angela EagleThe Environment Agency has estimated that there may be some 300,000 hectares of land across Britain as a whole which is affected, to some extent, by industrial or natural contamination. However, much of this contamination will be relatively minor. In only a small proportion of cases will there be a need for detailed investigation, assessment or remediation either with respect to current risks to human health and the environment or to facilitate the redevelopment of the land.
A range of policy programmes are already in place to encourage the reclamation of derelict and potentially contaminated land. My Department, together with other public bodies including the Environment Agency and the research councils, funds research and development for site investigation and remediation techniques, as well as publishing technical advice and guidance. Planning policies and guidance seek directly to encourage the recycling of brown-field sites rather than permitting the development of greenfield sites, and also seek to ensure that contamination risks are properly dealt with as particular developments are taken forward. Significant sums of public investment in the regeneration of vacant, derelict and contaminated land are committed each year by the statutory regeneration agencies, such as English Partnerships.
My right hon. Friend the Minister for the Environment will be announcing shortly proposals for the implementation of legislation providing a statutory regime for the identification and remediation of contaminated land which is not necessarily subject to development proposals, but which is currently causing significant risks to human health or the environment.