Sustainable Brownfield Regeneration - Dealing with Contaminated Sites: From Theory Towards Practical Application - page 1091

will be built on “previously developed land” (PDL), which is commonly referred to
as “Brownfield”. For example, English Partnerships (now part of the Housing and
Communities Agency) is custodian of the National Brownfield Policy that focuses
on returning PDL to beneficial use. Much post industrial land affected by contami-
nation has been redeveloped for housing. Such “chemically challenged” land is also
often referred to as Brownfield. The 60% target has been met, indeed exceeded,
only if the broad definition of Brownfield (aka PDL) is used. However an entire
section of the consultancy sector prefers to refer to land affected by contamination
as “Brownfield”: c.f. the nonsensical terms Brownfield remediation. This dichotomy
was recognised and became the subject of several debates in the House of Commons
(Box 25.2 ). Such debates demonstrate the political and economic sensitivity around
Brownfield definitions which are used to target financial or other interventions.
Box 25.2 Extract from Parliamentary Debate
on the Definition of Previously Developed Land
From Hansard ( 2008 )
Gardens
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local
Government when she expects
2 Apr 2009: Column 1504W
the review of the Brownfield designation of garden land to be completed; and
if she will make a statement. [267227]
Margaret Beckett: During the progress of the Planning Act 2008, the
Government committed to review the evidence on the extent and impact of
housing development on garden land in order to establish whether there was
a genuine problem. This commitment was undertaken in the absence of firm
evidence that a problem existed.
We propose to establish the amount of housing development on garden
land, which at present cannot be distinguished from other land classified as
“previously-residential” in the Land Use Change Statistics, such as estate
regeneration or conversions.
The review will take place in two stages. The first stage will involve obtain-
ing data directly from local planning authorities and the Planning Inspectorate.
My Department will write to local planning authorities in England requesting
data on the number of planning permissions granted or refused (including the
outcomes of any associated appeals), from 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2008,
for housing development within the curtilage of an existing dwelling house -
but only where these permissions have, or will, result in a net increase in
dwellings within the existing curtilage.
We have worked with the Planning Officers' Society and the Central Local
Information Partnership in designing the process of data collection for the
review to ensure it as straightforward for local authorities as possible.