News / Environment
Space for 30,000 homes in Bristol, study says
Bristol has space to build more than 30,000 new homes on brownfield or previously developed land (PDL), out of a national total of more than one million, a new report says today.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) report provides the first comprehensive figure for brownfield capacity in almost five years, and shows a minimum of 976,000 new homes could be built on identified brownfield sites across the country.
The findings of the report, From Wasted Space to Living Spaces (PDF), are based on research by the University of the West of England (UWE), which uses Bristol as one of its case studies.
It paints Bristol’s use of brownfield land for development in a relatively positive light, saying Bristol City Council is good at encouraging the development of smaller ‘windfall’ sites, which means that they have less need to look at greenfield land for development.
“The level of identified sites and the contribution from small windfall sites… give reasonable prospects that 30,600 homes can be delivered within the built-up area primarily from PDL and some redundant open space,” the report said.
It added that projects such as at Finzels Reach and Wapping Wharf in the city centre were good examples of the council “working towards promoting the delivery of a mix of uses across new developments, while securing Bristol City Centre’s housing needs” – despite both projects having previously stalled through lack of finance.
Paul Miner from CPRE said: “This research demonstrates the huge existing capacity for housing on brownfield land. At a time when there is great pressure on our green spaces, utilising this land through a brownfield first policy would protect our countryside and regenerate urban areas.
“We want this new, authoritative evidence to lead to a sustained focus on suitable brownfield land. We can and must do more to get these sites redeveloped, whether it be reviving the National Land Use Database or implementing strong local plans to deal with multiple landowners on difficult sites.”
The report comes with a backdrop of a housing market that has reached breaking point, with prices rising more than twice as fast as salaries.
The National Housing Federation said this year the housing shortage in the West of England has pushed house prices and private rents too far out of reach for local workers, with the crisis set to get even worse by 2020.
With 14,000 people on the city’s housing waiting list, Bristol mayor George Ferguson has pledged to build 4,000 affordable new homes in the city over the next five years.
On the BBC’s Sunday Politics Show yesterday, Ferguson was challenged by Labour’s Bristol South MP Dawn Primarolo to deal with housing as the “key issue” facing the city.
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