Government launches new measures to unlock brownfield land

Housing and Planning Minister Gavin Barwell announced that local authorities across the country will now have to produce and maintain up-to-date, publicly available registers of brownfield sites available for housing locally.

The new registers aim to help housebuilders identify suitable brownfield sites quickly to unlock land for "thousands of new homes", according to a government statement.

Brownfield registers were first piloted in 2016, when 73 local planning authorities across the country pioneered the measures.

In addition, the £3 billion Home Builders Fund announced in October 2016 will provide an additional £1.2 billion to unlock "at least 30,000 Starter Homes" on brownfield land.

Housing and Planning Minister, Gavin Barwell, said: "We need to build more homes in this country so making sure that we re-use brownfield land is crucial. We want to bring life back to abandoned sites, create thousands more homes and help protect our valued countryside.

"These new registers will give local authorities and developers the tools to do this."