Self-build homes

What are brownfield registers?

The term ‘brownfield land’ refers to derelict and underused land. In a government scheme, brownfield land registers will be compiled and maintained by each local authority and the registers will provide public information about brownfield land that is available locally.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) have introduced the cataloguing system to speed up development of derelict and underused land that can be used for new homes and help sites that are suitable for new housing developments to be easily identified.

Registers include information such as

• Site name
• Coordinates/easting and northing
• Physical size
• Planning status
• Ownership
• Housing estimate/minimum number of homes.

All local authorities that create a local plan hold a register covering their region and those registers became available in 2018.

How do brownfield registers work?

All brownfield sites within a region will be included in a local register, whatever their planning status. There will be a subset to that register which will list those sites that the local authority mark with ‘permission in principle’ which will indicate the sites that are suitable for development prior to submitting a planning application. This allows developers to quickly see which land is suitable for housing schemes.

The introduction of brownfield registers supports the Home Building Fund, available from the government, to small, community and custom builders.

Find out more about brownfield registers from GOV.UK.¹

Find out more about permission in principle from GOV.UK².

1. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/brownfield-registers-and-permission-in-principle/brownfield-registers-and-permission-in-principle-frequently-asked-questions#brownfield-registers-an-introduction
2. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/brownfield-registers-and-permission-in-principle/brownfield-registers-and-permission-in-principle-frequently-asked-questions#permission-in-principle-an-introduction