"Waste of Space" campaign to identify alternative sites: "More housing is needed in England and we support the Government’s policy that brownfield land should be used for new homes."

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Futures Forum: Of 'urban wildlife' and 'brownfield sites'...

The Campaign to Protect Rural England has just launched a campaign:

Help us spot the wasted spaces where you live #WasteOfSpace

More housing is needed in England and we support the Government’s policy that brownfield land should be used for new homes.

However current planning policy doesn’t prioritise building new homes on brownfield land before building in the countryside. More needs to be done to use suitable sites in our towns and cities rather than forcing development into our precious green spaces.

Send us your waste of space photos

To help us find out how much brownfield land is available and where it is, we are launching the #WasteOfSpace campaign to raise awareness of the ‘brownfield first’ solution.

Please help us by nominating brownfield sites in your area that could be suitable for housing development in the future.

You can add your nomination to the interactive map by:

• sending an email to wasteofspace@cpre.org.uk
• tweeting @CPRE with the hashtag #WasteOfSpace
• posting to Facebook #WasteOfSpace

All we need from you is an image of the site (as simple as a quick snap on your smartphone) and an address of the site including the postcode and street address. Just send us this and we will do the rest.

Our aim is to upload each nomination to our #WasteOfSpace map the same day it is submitted (or the next Monday if submitted at the weekend). So make sure you keep an eye out for your #WasteOfSpace nomination on the map so you can share it with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter once it is published.

Help us spot the wasted spaces where you live #WasteOfSpace - Campaign to Protect Rural England

Rural campaigners call on public to identify brownfield sites for new homes

Monday, 21 July 2014 11:15

St Edmunds Hospital, Northampton.Photo: © CPRE

CPRE launches crowdsourcing campaign to map brownfield sites across England.

Countryside campaigners are calling on the public to identify disused land across England that could be suitable for new homes.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) is launching a new campaign to map brownfield land across the country in a bid to highlight thousands of empty sites in villages, towns and cities that could be suitable for new homes.

The new digital campaign, #WasteOfSpace, launches today and will run for six months. To take part, people are asked to nominate a brownfield site in their local area - for example an empty shop, disused post office, or abandoned factory - by tweeting or emailing photos which will be added to an interactive map online.

A CPRE report earlier this year found that the Government’s planning reforms are unnecessarily damaging the countryside and failing to prioritise the reuse of brownfield land and regeneration of urban areas.

The report also revealed that only a quarter of local authorities propose to prioritise brownfield sites over greenfield because national planning policy does not give enough support for them to do so.

The Government has since introduced incentives for developers to build 200,000 homes on brownfield land by 2020 but CPRE says this woefully underestimates the amount of land available and there are thousands of more sites that should be unlocked before releasing more greenfield land.

CPRE is now asking the public to help it pinpoint the location of brownfield sites across England to create a live map for politicians and developers to identify sites and exceed their targets. This information will inform research that CPRE has commissioned to assess the number of vacant sites and encourage the Government to grow its ambition.

Shaun Spiers, chief executive of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said:

“We want to find out how much brownfield land is actually available and suitable for much needed new housing. At the last count, there was enough in England to accommodate at least 1.5 million homes, so we believe the latest 200,000 target is grossly unambitious. With so much wasted space available it is nonsensical that 700,000 new homes are currently planned for our open countryside, 200,000 of which are in the Green Belt.

“England is an ever more crowded country so let’s use our land wisely, for people and nature. Using brownfield land and empty buildings is a win-win making our towns more valuable and saving our precious countryside.”

In response to the campaign, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles, said:

"In the last four years we have done everything we can to get this country building more homes, while keeping our focus firmly set on protecting our countryside and making the best possible use of brownfield land.

“We’ve already made it easier for existing buildings to be converted into homes, and made sure councils can set locally appropriate targets for using brownfield land.

"We have a comprehensive programme to bring empty homes back into use, we are selling redundant government property, and have changed the rules to provide a greater incentive to use brownfield land.

“We have also increased transparency by opening up the books of councils so that people can see the value of the land councils hold and can challenge them to release brownfield sites suitable for development. That’s why I encourage people to get involved in this campaign and nominate brownfield land that can be unlocked in their area.”

To nominate a brownfield site and add it to CPRE’s ‘WasteOfSpace’ map of England, people are asked to send an image of the site (as simple as a quick snap on a smartphone) and an address of the site - either a postcode or rough street address. Send the image by:

emailing wasteofspace@cpre.org.uk
tweeting @CPRE with the hashtag #WasteOfSpace
posting to the Facebook group #WasteOfSpace

Please help us by nominating brownfield sites in your area that could be suitable for housing development in the future.

Find out more
Help us spot the wasted spaces where you live

Rural campaigners call on public to identify brownfield sites for new homes - Campaign to Protect Rural England
#wasteofspace: help CPRE identify brownfield land suitable for housing | CPRE viewpoint

Thanks to:
CPRE launches campaign to identify brownfield sites | East Devon Alliance
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