Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will introduce measures to prioritise all brownfield sites for development in (a) Kent and (b) England.

The redevelopment of brownfield land, if not of high environmental value, is already strongly encouraged in our National Planning Policy Framework. The Framework also asks local authorities to consider including policies in their Local Plans to support the reuse of brownfield land. However, each brownfield site is different, and local authorities need to consider whether the land is available, viable and suitable to build on, taking into account the specific features of each site.

Government has introduced a number of measures to increase the uptake of brownfield land, including accelerating disposal of public sector brownfield sites for housing, extending permitted development to give new life to thousands of under-used buildings, reforming the Community Infrastructure Levy arrangements to incentivise building reuse, and launching the £3 billion Home Building Fund to help unblock more brownfield land for new homes. Each local authority is also required to publish an easy-to-access local Brownfield Register by the end of 2017. This will enable house builders, custom builders and investors to identify sites suitable for new homes.

Our Housing White Paper consultation included proposals for further increasing housing on suitable brownfield land. We will publish our conclusions and propose any revisions to the Framework as soon as possible in 2018.