15 April 2015
Research suggests there is enough brownfield land available in England to build well over 200,000 homes within the next five years – which could signal new opportunities for self build or custom build projects.
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Following proposals from both Labour and Conservative parties to deliver housing on UK brownfield land, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) report Making More Brownfield Land Available for Housing uses Nottingham as a representative case study of major cities in England outside of London.
And, through a detailed analysis of 30 brownfield sites, it reveals a number of constraints which impact upon housing development and delivery – notably restricting the use of Section 106 planning obligations. Last December, the Government confirmed that self builders would be exempt from paying Section 106 Affordable Housing Contributions. Other barriers identified include landownership and contamination/underground issues.
The RICS suggests that, in order to create the places people want to live and raise families, there must have a coherent approach to developing on brownfield that involves communities and sets standards for categorizing land for use which can form a national brownfield map for viable housing delivery. The professional body calls for collaboration across both public and private sectors to lower barriers and streamline the housing delivery process, which it says is vital if the country is to deliver the number of homes that UK brownfield has the potential to deliver.
Research collated in the paper proves that Nottingham can be used as a canary in the coal mine for brownfield land in similar sized cities across England. It suggests that, according to the Office of National Statistics, there are 49 cities with a comparable population size giving enough brownfield land across the UK to build at least 226,000 by 2019 – providing the potential for even more self/custom build dwellings.
