Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he plans to take to encourage further regeneration of vacant brownfield sites.

The Government strongly encourages the re-use of brownfield land. National policy already sets out that planning policies and decisions should make efficient use of land and give substantial weight to the value of using suitable brownfield land.

The Government has already introduced a range of policy and funding incentives to support the development of brownfield land and the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill will further empower local leaders to regenerate towns and cities by strengthening and adding to existing measures. For example, it will provide:

• the new Infrastructure Levy which will be set locally by local planning authorities. They will be able to set different Levy rates in different areas, for example lower rates on brownfield over greenfield to increase the potential for brownfield development. That will allow them to reflect national policy, which delivers our brownfield first pledge by giving substantial weight to the value of using brownfield land;
• local authorities with the power to fill vacant commercial property, such as shops, through high street rental auctions;
• a power for local authorities to be able to double the standard council tax rate on any home left empty for longer than a year, rather than two, encouraging more empty homes back into productive use.

Further to this, we have committed to launching a review to identify further measures that would prioritise the use of brownfield land.