The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has today published Brownfield Market Signals, a report that identifies a great threat to greenfield sites across England.

Government’s call for the development of brownfield sites for housing projects has, in many cases, been rendered unviable due to the availability of greenfield sites with planning permission.

Kate Gordon, senior planner for CPRE spoke to GPN and said: “We would like government to pay a bit more attention to how housing development works on the ground. Government research has analysed aggregate data rather than data at a local level. Nobody has conducted research like ours before, and it should be part of the government’s decision-making process.

“The CPRE has never gone along with government’s belief in demand-lead growth – it becomes self-fulfilling. Building more homes in an area of high demand does not reduce house prices.”

Local authorities and developers have taken on board the government target of three million new homes by 2020. While brownfield sites are used initially – in accordance with government strategy – a ‘critical mass’ is created around new developments. The attractiveness of the new area, with its attendant infrastructure and ready-made marketability, creates desire to build in the same neighbourhood.

CPRE studied data drawn from planning consents, house building and construction costs; from this it created a model of development viability. The model shows that in areas such as North Tyneside and Corby, brownfield sites in ‘viable’ areas are not sufficient to meet demand and so greenfields are built upon. Local authorities are under pressure to meet government housing targets and so planning permission is often forthcoming.

Kate Gordon concluded that: “Brownfield opportunities are out there; do we have the right planning structure to realise them? I don’t think so.”