New tools to speed up development of brownfield sites for new homes

Councils to have new tools to unlock brownfield land for thousands of new homes.

The development of derelict and underused land for new homes will be sped up, thanks to new tools available to the council, which will allow them to produce and maintain up-to-date, publicly available registers of brownfield sites available for housing locally.

Land for thousands of new homes will be unlocked as new registers help housebuilders identify suitable sites quickly.

Communities will be able to highlight local derelict or underused building sites that are primed for redevelopment, which will bring investment to the area and increase the number of new homes.

The registers are part of the government’s ambitious programme to speed up housing.

“Housing and Planning Minister Gavin Barwell said: We need to build more homes in this country so making sure that we re-use brownfield land is crucial. We want to bring life back to abandoned sites, create thousands more homes and help protect our valued countryside.

“These new registers will give local authorities and developers the tools to do this.”

In 2016, brownfield registers were piloted, with 73 local planning authorities across the country pioneering the measures.

The £3Bn Home Builders Fund will be used to support the development of the sites, with an additional £1.2Bn provided to unlock at least 30,000 Starter Homes on brownfield land.

The new registers have also given the government a new way of obtaining planning permission, which will be in easier for developers to deliver housing in places that people want to live.

Permission In principle will give developers more certainty over whether a site is suitable for development ahead of working up costly proposals to obtain full planning permission.

Further legislation will follow this year to roll-out ‘permission in principle’ more widely through the planning system.

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