§ Dr. FoxTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how much of the contaminated land, required to satisfy his proposals for house building up to 2016, he estimates will be remediated using(a) process technologies and (b) excavation to landfill. [127581]
§ Mr. MullinOne of the main objectives of national planning policy for housing (PPG3) is that authorities make far better use of previously developed land and buildings for meeting the country's housing needs. The Government have set a target that by 2008 60 per cent. of additional housing should be provided this way. It is not possible to forecast precisely how much of the previously-developed land used by 2016 will be contaminated land, nor how that land will be remediated.
However, the Environment Agency has carried out a survey of remediation activity in England and Wales from January 1996 until December 1999. Information was collected from local authorities, industry and the National House-Building Council (NHBC). The survey was not statistically representative of all the remediation which took place during that time, but it does give an indication of current practice.
Of the 367 sites identified from local authority and industry sources, 75 per cent. involved excavation and disposal off site and 21 per cent. involved process based methods.
Of the 1,189 sites recorded by the NHBC, civil engineering techniques (including excavation and off site disposal, site re-grading and containment) were used on 95 per cent. of sites. Process based methods were used on 5 per cent. of sites.