United Kingdom:"Brownfields housing faces problems"

[Tony Chenhansa <tonyc@cpeo.org>]

The following article summary is from the BBC News website. I had no
luck finding the survey (on the WWW) the articles refers to. If some
does find it please let me know. Thanks

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_288000/288230.stm

Monday, March 1, 1999 Published at 15:42 GMT
Brownfield housing faces problems

During the past couple of years, the UK government has been trying to
introduce incentives to "ensure 60% of new housing is built on
"brownfield" land." The government estimates that four million new homes
will be needed by 2016. The government's purpose is also to make "better
use of urban sites in order to prevent the countryside disappearing
under bricks and mortar."

In 1986 survey, the "Inner Cities Commission" identified 54 brownfield
sites that could be developed for housing in England and Wales.  Of the
54 sites only 39 sites had been developed. And only 29 had been
developed for housing, on either whole or part of a site.

Recently the Civic Trust and The House Builders Federation reviewed the
survey and came up with a some key issues important to the development
of housing on brownfields.

The research says:

      * There has been a poor fit between the original identification of
sites for housing and
         the actual achievement of successful housing development on
them.

      * Contaminated land continues to be a significant obstacle to
development. Nearly half
         of all the sites in the first survey (26) were found to be
significantly contaminated in
         1986. Of these, only 15 have been developed.

       * More than 70% of builders would not hold contaminated land in
their portfolios.
          There are also signs that banks and building societies are
unwilling to lend for
          development on polluted land.

       * Public and private landowners are often unwilling to sell land,
either due to
          economic and market factors, or as a result of short-term
views and an unrealistic
          attitude to land values.

The researchers recommend a new focus in government policy to reflect
important variations between regions in market structure, local
character and customer demand and better site selection.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_288000/288230.stm

Here are some additional links if you're interested in finding out more
about this topic

Civic Trust
 http:// http://www.civictrust.org.uk/

House Builders Federation
 http://www.new-homes.co.uk/index.html

Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions
 http://www.detr.gov.uk/

Friends of the Earth
http://www.foe.co.uk/

Coucil for the Protection of Rural England
 http://www.greenchannel.com/cpre/


--


Tony Chenhansa,  Program Coordinator
Center for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO)
425 Market Street 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA  94105
ph: 415-904-7751 fx: 415-904-7765
e-mail: tonyc@cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org

A program of the San Francisco Urban Institute