Government unlocks brownfield sites for new homes

The government is to give £68 million to a total of 54 councils to turn neglected land into new homes. It will transform local communities and help families onto the property ladder.

The funding will mean councils can clear empty buildings, former car parks and industrial land to make way for the homes. This category of land is expensive to prepare for housebuilding, meaning sites are sat empty and an eyesore for local communities.

With the funding, delivered through the Brownfield Land Release Fund, councils will be able to cover the cost of decontamination, clearing disused buildings or improving infrastructure such as internet, water and power. As a result, the government estimates that land will be released to enable 5,200 homes to be built across the country.

Some of the projects to benefit from the funding include: £2.2 million to Eastbourne to transform a former industrial site, to build 100 new homes including 80 affordable houses and more than £1.7 million to the town centre in Weston-Super-Mare to allow over 100 homes to be built on brownfield land.

To accelerate housing development and achieve the ambition to build 1.5 million homes, the government has also:

• Announced an overhaul of the planning system through a consultation on reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework, including new mandatory housebuilding targets for councils.
• Launched a New Homes Accelerator group to unblock thousands of new homes stuck in the planning system or partially built.
• Introduced ‘brownfield passports’ to ensure where planning proposals meet design and quality standards, the default answer to planning permission is yes.
• Set up an independent New Towns Taskforce, as part of a long-term vision to create largescale communities of at least 10,000 new homes each.