Brownfield Register
The Government has made it a legal requirement for Councils to prepare and publish a Brownfield Register. This register will provide up-to-date, publically available information of brownfield land that is suitable for housing.
Through Annex 2 of the National Planning Policy Framework, the Government defines brownfield sites (or previously developed land) as land which has already been built on and either currently contains buildings/structures, or has done so in the recent past.
Brownfield sites do not include:
- Land occupied by agricultural or forestry buildings
- Certain minerals and waste disposal sites where restoration plans are in place
- Land in built-up areas such as private residential gardens, parks, recreation grounds and allotments
- Land where the previous development have blended into the landscape.
To be included, sites must also be:
- Available for residential development
- Suitable for residential development, in accordance with policies in the adopted Local Plan and the NPPF and free from adverse impacts on the natural environment, habitats or built heritage that cannot be mitigated
- Viable and capable of being delivered within 5 years or developed later on (likely to take place within 15 years)
- At least 0.25 hectares in size or capable of supporting five or more dwellings
This is Part 1 of the Brownfield Register which is a catalogue of all of the brownfield sites which meet the criteria and are considered suitable for housing development irrespective of whether they currently have planning permission. The majority of these sites have been submitted by landowners or their agents as part of the Strategic Housing and Employment Land Availability Assessment call for sites exercise. Other sites included have already been granted planning permission or are allocated as potential development sites within the Test Valley Borough Revised Local Plan (2016).
A site’s inclusion onto Part 1 of the Brownfield Register does not give it any formal status, or grant permission in principle or in any sense infer that planning permission will be granted for residential development. Similarly it does not affect the status of sites that already have planning permission or are allocated in the Local Plan for development.
This year the Council has entered sites on Part 1 of the register only. No sites have been included on Part 2. A decision will be taken in due course whether to enter any sites on Part 2 of the register in future years.