Housing Land (Hansard, 19 May 1998)

§ Mr. Caborn

My Department has worked with the Local Government Management Board, English Partnerships, Ordnance Survey and local authorities to establish a method of providing a consistent assessment of previously developed land which may be available for housing or other development, as the first step towards a complete Land Use Database for England.

Key features of the approach are to meet the needs of a number of organisations from a single data collection exercise, and to use information already held by the local authorities wherever possible, to avoid duplication of effort. Local authorities will be asked to draw up a list of previously developed sites along with information about the location, area, planning status and other relevant characteristics of each site. This will be done to a common format and using standard definitions that will be set out in guidance being developed jointly by DETR, Local Government Management Board, English Partnerships and Ordnance Survey following consultation with a number of local authorities.

English Partnerships will contract teams of surveyors which will visit each local authority to complete the data collection and to collect additional information about certain sites on the potential for redevelopment. Ordnance Survey will provide quality assurance on the geographical attributes of the data, and develop the list of sites into a `map database' showing the site boundaries. Ordnance Survey will also develop a plan for extending the coverage of the database to other land uses, and for keeping the resulting National Land Use Database up to date.

Cause of delay	1993–94	1994–95	1995–96	1996–97	1997–98
Broken/cracked rails	31	8	30	22	56
Signalling	1,783	1,718	1,862	1,891	2,181
Objects on track	217	208	248	327	314
All causes	35,952	34,150	34,463	34,767	38,840