Brownfield first policy welcomed by property industry

The British Property Federation (BPF) has praised the government for its commitment to helping developers to build on brownfield land, which the organisation believes has an important part to play in solving the UK’s housing crisis.

The Department for Communities and Local Government today published a consultation which will examine how proposals to put local development orders in place for 90% of brownfield land by 2020 might work in practice.

The BPF has long championed the use of brownfield land for development, and has called on government to encourage local authorities to plan positively for brownfield land in their area. It has therefore welcomed the consultation as an important step to delivering much needed new homes and to ensuring that local authorities maintain an up-to-date five year housing land supply.  

The organisation would like to see local authorities use these local development orders to create areas of mixed-use, rather than just use them to meet housing targets.

Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said: “We need to deliver a huge number of new homes if we are to solve the current housing crisis, and encouraging development on brownfield land has an important part to play in this.

"We are slightly concerned that, as local authorities are so lacking in resources right now, it is going to be difficult for them to implement this policy, but look forward to working out the detail with government to iron out the detail.

"We hope that this policy will lead to positive planning in the right areas, to create sustainable, mixed-use developments where people can work, live and play.”