Pilot Brownfield Register for Rossendale

Rossendale Borough Council, together with Hyndburn and Pendle Councils, submitted a joint bid to the Government in February 2016 to become a pilot authority to prepare a Brownfield Register. The bid was successful and each authority has compiled a list of sites to be included in its own Brownfield Register.

What is the pilot Brownfield Register project?

The Brownfield Register identifies previously developed land that is available, capable of development and able to deliver 5 or more dwellings (or more than 0.25ha). The Brownfield Register provides a list of some sites that are suitable for housing within the Borough.

Although not specifically referred to in the Housing and Planning Act (2016) there is provision (and expectation) that further Regulations will be published requiring every authority to produce an annual statutory Brownfield Register from 2017. A further expectation is that the Government will expect 90% of the sites on the Brownfield Register to receive Planning Permission in Principle (PIP) by 2020.

During the pilot project Rossendale, together with Pendle and Hyndburn Councils, provided feedback to the Department for Communities and Local Government on the process of creating the pilot register. This feedback will inform the secondary legislation (the Regulations) and associated guidance, due to be published later this year.

The Government provided guidance on how to prepare the Register. Rossendale used information from the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLA), Site Assessments carried out in 2015, the Call for Sites (March 2016) and Pre-Planning Applications to identify sites, which were then assessed against the suitability criteria set out in the Pilot Brownfield Register Manual . This criteria includes: being available; able to deliver 5 or more dwellings (or be more than 0.25ha); and capable of development (i.e. suitable for residential development and “free from constraints that cannot be mitigated”.

Rossendale’s Pilot Brownfield Register

The pilot Brownfield Register for Rossendale can be downloaded here. It is a “.csv” file in accordance with open standard format – Rossendale Brownfield Register

The boundaries of the sites included in the register can be viewed on Rossendale’s online map service.

What happens next?

The Housing and Planning Act 2016 sets out the primary legislation to introduce Registers of Land. However, the Government is still preparing the regulations which will provide details of how the Register should be prepared. These regulations are due to be published in September/October 2016 and once these are finalised we will update the Brownfield Register to reflect the statutory requirements.

Further information

• Council Wins Brownfield Register Funding