Sweeping planning changes boost for brownfield sites
NEW government incentives for developers to build homes on brownfield land will be particularly welcome in Birmingham.
According to Lorna Devane-Porter, a senior surveyor in the land and development team at the Birmingham office of CBRE, 45,000 of the 80,000 new homes required in the city by 2031 are earmarked for brownfield sites.
Whilst there is a national housing crisis, the problem is acute in Birmingham, where the population is set to grow by more than 150,000 by 2031.
Ms Devane-Porter said: “Building on the green belt is politically sensitive, so it’s no surprise that more than half of Birmingham’s new homes are earmarked for brownfield sites.
“However, the challenges of bringing brownfield sites into use means they often don’t get past first base.”
Chancellor George Osborne has announced a number of measures to address these challenges headon.
His plans include sweeping aside planning laws to allow new homes to be built on brownfield land without permission. The planning process is also to be speeded up and local government is to be given greater compulsory purchase powers to seize brownfield sites.
Ms Devane-Porter said: “Brownfield sites often tend to be small, so to eliminate the time and cost involved in obtaining planning permission makes them more deliverable, something the Federation of Master Builders has already conceded.”
By 2020 the Government expects local development orders to be in place on more than 90 per cent of brownfield sites suitable for housing. Funding for infrastructure projects has also been pledged.
“Bringing brownfield sites back into use is rarely easy. The costs of remediating contaminated sites, or introducing basic infrastructure such as transport, education and health facilities is a major barrier to their regeneration. The Government’s proposed incentive packages should be a game-changer, though the proposals are short on detail in this regard,” added Ms Devane-Porter.
Business Secretary Sajid Javid, MP for Bromsgrove, has said there is “no need” to build on green belt land to meet the Government’s targets. Ms Devane-Porter dismissed this: “It’s a fallacy that green belt land isn’t needed, particularly in Birmingham and the West Midlands conurbation. Birmingham will need greenbelt land in Sutton Coldfield and potentially Bromsgrove to meet its target.”