London needs more than brownfield redevelopment, finds report

A report published by Quod consultancy in partnership with Shelter Housing states that "brownfield is of course the first place to look, but it is no silver bullet… almost all of London's brownfield is already in use, or is already part of plans for new housing."

Brownfield is any land that has had previous development on it, excluding any gardens. According to the report, two-thirds of the brownfield sites in London already have housing on and many other sites are used for transport.  There are many barriers to building on brownfield land; it may require relocating existing users, decontaminating land, rebuilding infrastructure and finding a suitable design all of which can be both costly and slow.

The report finds that, in order to meet London's housing demand using solely brownfield sites; there would need to be enough land to build a development the size of the Olympic Park development every three months on top of current projects.

The report considers a "faster release of Strategic Industrial Land, which is currently protected in the London Plan for employment uses" and converting this into land for housing and finding alternative locations for the employment uses.

The document also considers various alternatives. A possible option is to deliver housing on green belt land. According to the report, the full London green belt area which extends to the South East of England covers "four times as much land as the built up areas".  14 London boroughs have more green belt land than that with housing with "only a fifth of London's green belt [having] an environmental stats or accessible to the public as green space." However, a balance needs to be found between the protection of land and the delivery of homes.

A further option within London is estate redevelopment. The UK prime minster David Cameron recently announced that £140 million would be allocated to funding the redevelopment of 100 estates across the country. "There is a lot of potential to improve the density of some housing estates, adding new homes – either by selective infill or more comprehensive redevelopment" says the report. The main limitation is that estate redevelopment can be slow and complex and require the relocation of existing tenants and facilities such as schools, shops or community amenities.  

The report raises questions for the next London mayor and considers alternative options such as taller buildings, adding density to the suburbs, increasing the number of garden cities or city villages or building homes on transport corridors.

Planning expert Victoria Lindsay of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com said "this report highlights that the next London mayor needs a clear and considered strategy for dealing with housing shortage in London and that a number of options need to be brought into the mix if the next mayor is actually going to deliver a significant increase in housing."

"Alternative options such as development on the green belt are not going to be easy and will be controversial but they need to be examined carefully. Housing targets need to be met and I doubt brownfield land will be enough by itself", Lindsay said.