Writing the earlier blog today ‘Young people are being abandoned’ prompted me to read the CPRE November 2021 report Recycling our land: state of brownfield 2021 as it is the justification of the government’s policy to rely on brownfield land. My reaction was shock. A housing policy where the foundations are built on sand, will collapse: quickly.
Some observations may help. The opening sentence is ‘Our plentiful supply of brownfield land…..”. That rang alarm bells, so I checked England’s total acreage on the gov.uk Official Statistics, Land Use Statistics: England 2022 website published on 27 October 2022. It confirms England has a land area of 13,046,000 hectacres. According to the CPRE report there were 26,256 ha of brownfield land land in 2021. Put simply, 26,256ha is one fifth of one percent of the total, or 0.2 %. CPRE go one to stay their first recommendation is to introduce a brownfield first policy as harnessing this resource means that our precious countryside and green spaces can continue to provide crucial services for nature and the climate as well as people’s health and well-being. On 0.2% of the land?
This claim in turn reminded me to check again how much of our green and pleasant land is open to the public. According to Nick Hayes’ book The Book of Trepass which I have on my to read list, we are excluded from 92% of the land. Looking at land from the car is one experience. Walking on it is not the same. Which leaves me wondering what the CPRE policy on public access to the countryside is. Anyone know?
I support, in appropriate circumstances CPRE’s policy to encourage local communities to bring brownfield land forward through the use of compulsory purchase powers. Fine. Is that all? Otherwise the report’s only relevant, balanced and mature suggestion is that a comprehensive brownfield first policy should be part of the NPPF. Of course this is a first step, one step away from haphazard, spatially incontinent site release policies followed by councils today. What a pup!
By the way, why is it sensible as CPRE says, to build more homes in places where there is less demand (page 5)? I hope they are experienced enough to know that employers, not employees decide where their head offices and production facilities are located. Reality is that employees locate in response. Employers do not follow housing supply. This is the story of fifty years of English growth. And there is nil evidence that Michael Gove’s levelling up department has found a way to make water flow uphill after 50 years of experiments.
Are the CPRE a serious research organisation? I now see why the CPS report is not convinced by CPRE’s arguments that brownfield sites are the solution. My own market based experience confirms CPS are correct in their assessment. The CLRE is full of wishful thinking, destined to make England a less productive, less fair, and less happy country …thank you Elizabeth Dunkley and Alex Morton for some honesty.
Ian Campbell
29 January 2023
Ian Campbell
29 January 2023
