The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) has had a long running battle with the Government over the potential of brownfield development to assist in meeting the housing target.  Their analysis of the brownfield registers which all authorities in England and Wales were obliged to compile by the end of December 2017 has just been published and makes for very interesting reading.

CPRE analysed the registers completed by 95% of the planning authorities, which had to identify brownfield sites which were available and capable of sustainable development for residential use.  That analysis suggests that over 1,000,000 homes could be delivered on brownfield (the Government argued as recently as 2015 that this figure was as low as 200,000), and of that nearly 70% is identified as being capable of development within 5 years.  At present however the vast majority of this land sits without planning permission

CPRE are calling on central government to centralise the registers to enable identification of redevelopment opportunities across authority borders, to compel local authorities to now complete part 2 of the register which would endow appropriate sites with Planning in Principle status, and to empower those authorities to refuse green belt applications where suitable brownfield alternatives exist..