MPs voice concern over planning policy for brownfield development

More than one hundred MPs from all political parties have urged ministers not to change their policy on housing development, which currently requires the use of brownfield sites before greenfield ones are considered.

The parliamentarians are concerned that the final version of the government's Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 3, which covers housing, will dilute existing guidance.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is due to publish the PPS shortly and a significant number of MPs have signed a Commons Early Day Motion (EDM) calling on the administration not to change tack.

At issue is the department's proposal that the new advice should give greater emphasis on meeting market demand for housing where it exists, a theme which chimes with the earlier Barker report on housing pro supply.

The EDM states that: "This House welcomes the progress made on recycling brownfield land and increasing the supply of housing with house building reaching its highest level for 16 years and 72 per cent  of homes now built on brownfield sites; notes the positive role played by planning policy in housing provision, especially the sequential brown field first approach in PPG 3; and, in the light of this achievement, is concerned and perplexed by the emphasis of the government's draft planning  policy on housing places on meeting market demand where it arises, rather than where capacity for development exists…."

The EDM goes on to call for a "clear sequential" approach with urban brownfield sites taking priority over greenfield development in the final version of the guidance.

Backbench Labour MP David Drew, who tabled the EDM, said: "I very much welcome the response colleagues have demonstrated towards this important EDM.

"It is vital that we keep up the pressure to ensure that development takes place on appropriate sites, brownfield first wherever possible."

A spokesperson for the Department for Communities and Local Government said that 73 per cent of new housing is now built on brownfield land, up from 56 per cent in 1997.

"The new planning policy will continue to prioritise the use of brownfield land and the draft includes a new requirement for local authorities to develop brownfield strategies.

"However, we need to build more homes if we are to meet the need of future generations and that is why we have also included proposals to ensure suitable land is brought forward for new development."

More information on the EDM

More information on the CPRE's campaign to support the EDM

Roger Milne

13 July 2006