Brownfield sites: the key to new housing

We've recently delved deep into community data, specifically on what the public thinks about using brownfield sites. Their thoughts? That these areas are ripe for development and (perhaps more crucially) they want a say in how they are used. Read all about it in our brand-new report!

Because the current government has earmarked brownfield sites as a source of land to accelerate the development of housing, there is even greater interest in how communities perceive brownfield sites, and whether they would support their development. With this in mind, we couldn't be more excited to team up with three of the UK's largest and most highly respected developers: Landsec, British Land and Berkeley Homes to research this further.

Why Brownfield Sites?

One of the common challenges of building new homes is that these development projects do not always attract the support of local people.

By contrast, our research for this report demonstrates quite the opposite. We've found that community sentiment towards the regeneration of urban brownfield sites is overwhelmingly positive, with 79% of respondents believing that regenerating previously developed brownfield land would have a ‘positive’ or ‘very positive’ impact on their local area. In fact, the vast majority of people surveyed perceive underdeveloped brownfield sites as ‘wasted potential’.

Furthermore, when there is an honest and open public dialogue around the trade-offs between the scale of development and the local infrastructure it unlocks, support for greater building height and housing density increases significantly. Higher density is important in ensuring affordable housing delivery can be maximised as well as allowing local authorities to achieve their newly reinstated housing targets.

How Was the Brownfield Data Gathered?

We conducted the research via three ‘big conversations’ with the public, which gathered resonses from 1,829 individuals in Cambridge, Camden, Manchester and Newham. We collected data on various aspects of brownfield regeneration, including overall sentiment, perceived opportunities, building height trade-offs and community engagement.

There were four key areas of findings from the the research, under which 19 policy recommendations were made to enhance community support for brownfield development:

• Communities view underdeveloped brownfield land in their area as a wasted opportunity
• Brownfield urban regeneration is not only seen as a more acceptable form of development, but also as desirable and something that should be optimised
• Urban communities recognise the role development can play in generating benefits for the environment and local quality of life, and are comfortable balancing trade-offs between local benefits, so long as these trade-offs are clearly understood
• Communities know what they want to see – and should be involved in the planning and development process

Want to find out more? Download the report for free below: