Brownfield land registers come into effect but councils miss deadline

In April 2017 the Town and Country Planning (Brownfield Land Register) Regulations 2017 came into force which required local authorities to publish brownfield land registers by 31 December 2017. The purpose of these registers is to compile details of previously developed land in relation to which an application for Permission in Principle may be made. The land may also be included in part 2 of the register which would mean that it is granted Permission in Principle without the need for an application.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) found that 70 out of 337 local authorities had failed to publish brownfield land registers by 03 January this year, however the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said that if publications after the deadline are taken into account, the figure is more like 27. The land which has been included on registers identified by CPRE would be able to provide a minimum of 977,000 new homes.

Planning Resource noted in January this year that very few of the local authorities who have published registers have produced part 2 of their register in relation to which sites would benefit from Permission in Principle.

Comment

The introduction of brownfield land registers and Permission in Principle was anticipated to provide a real boost for housing led development by streamlining the consenting process and to incentivise prioritising the use of brownfield land over greenfield land. However where local authorities are already open to the principle of housing led development on brownfield land but they want to retain greater control over the quality of design, provision of affordable housing and other similar issues they are disincentivised from including land in part 2 of the registers that would otherwise grant Permission in Principle.

Time will tell if the maturing of this new consenting process pays dividends in terms of housing provision at a time when the UK Government has published consultation papers such as “Planning for the right homes in the right places: consultation proposals” (September 2017) off the back of the Housing White Paper “Fixing our broken housing market” (February 2017). However the failure of many local authorities to meet the publication deadline and choosing not to include land on part 2 of registers presents a barrier to such progress in the short term.