£200m brownfield homes fund backfires as figures fall

A £200MILLION Government fund to pay for more homes on industrial land has had the opposite effect, with fewer homes built on brownfield areas than before it was set up.

Government land use statistics showed that the proportion of new homes registered on previously developed land fell by four percentage points since 2014, when the fund was set up.

Yet over the same period – 2013-14 to 2016-17 – the number of new homes on protected Green Belt land increased by 4 per cent, and the proportion of new Green Belt residential addresses also rose from 3 per cent to 4 per cent.

The Government’s record was attacked by Labour which said ministers’ commitment to building on brownfield sites was “hot air”. The £200million fund was announced by Brandon Lewis, then the housing minister, in August 2014. He published bidding criteria to create 10 housing zones on brownfield land outside London, each able to deliver up to 2,000 new homes.

John Healey, the shadow housing secretary, said the figures showed that the Government had gone backwards on its pledge to encourage more building on brownfield sites. He said: “If hot air built homes then ministers would have fixed our housing crisis.”

Matt Thomson, the head of planning at the Campaign to Protect Rural England, criticised the Government for “broken promises” and said it needed to “back greenfield development where suitable brownfield land” was available.