Brownfield Register Making Data Standards Work Kevin Flanagan April 2016

Promoting Brownfield Land National Planning Policy Framework Planning policies and decisions should encourage the effective use of land by re-using brownfield land (previously developed land) provided that it is not of high environmental value Local councils can set locally appropriate targets for using brownfield land Conservative Party Manifesto Commitment Promote house building and home ownership Ensure that brownfield land is used as much as possible for new development and protect Green Belt Require local planning authorities to have a register of what is available, and ensure that 90 per cent of suitable brownfield sites have planning permission for housing by 2020 Housing and Planning Bill Clause 137 requires authorities to have a register of brownfield land for housing Bill currently being considered by the House of Lords, expectation of Royal Assent in May Currently considering responses to recent consultation on implementing Bill measures 2

Promoting Brownfield Land 58% of new homes, including conversions, were created on brownfield land in – and Government wants that figure to increase First – by backing development on brownfield through our housing and planning reform programmes Second – by making it easier for developers to identify and build on brownfield sites through brownfield registers 3

Brownfield Register - Principles Ensure that brownfield land is used as much as possible for new development - 90 per cent of suitable brownfield sites to have planning permission for housing by 2020 Provide up-to-date, good quality and transparent information on local availability for developers and local communities 4

Brownfield Register - Background Based on Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) process, including annual reviews of potentially suitable sites. Authorities should also look at other relevant sources and ask landowners and others to volunteer sites for consideration Potential brownfield sites should comply with national policy definition of previously developed land To be regarded as suitable for housing potential sites must be:  Available – Deliverable (within 5 years) or Developable (within 6-10 years)  Capable of supporting 5 or more dwellings or more than 0.25ha  Capable of Development – free from constraints Sites that meet this criteria will be placed on brownfield registers (including sites that are granted a new ‘permission in principle’ for development) Registers to be kept under review, regularly updated and made publicly available 5

Brownfield Register – Data Standard Local planning authorities will be required to have a register of brownfield land suitable for housing to provide up-to-date, good quality and transparent information on local availability Key Principles Not a central register, registers published locally with the flexibility for others to use data Aim to achieve consistent standard data across all authorities, published to Open Data standards to aid transparency and allow aggregation Will help to measure progress towards the Government’s commitment to ensure that 90% of suitable brownfield sites have planning permission for housing by 2020 Began working with iStandUK to consider best way to achieve data consistency 6

Brownfield Register Pilot Project Pilot authorities are road testing the preparation and publication of brownfield registers which will feed into the development of secondary legislation and guidance 15 local planning authorities with the most brownfield land accepted invitation to participate in the first phase in January, and 58 authorities submitted successful bids (some working in partnerships) in second phase in February Pilot authorities are underway on the project; DCLG has held workshops and issued a guidance manual setting out 4 key stages Technical working group of DCLG, iStandUK and around 10 colleagues from local government are establishing a data schema with a template setting out national data standard 7

Brownfield Register Data Schema 8 Technical group finalising Data Schema before sharing with pilot authorities; our current approach is: Site Reference Site Name Site Address UPRN Location Co-ordinates Site Size Planning Status Planning History Constraints Ownership Status Owners Estimated no. of homes Notes Not all fields will be mandatory – encouraging the use of UPRN to allow linked data Facility to link to other sources of data – e.g. planning history, possible links to Council’s websites iStandUK preparing a helpful guidance document that defines the format and vocabularies for the data To be published in CSV format

9 Pilot Brownfield Registers: Next Steps Key milestones: DCLG will issue the data schema and guidance to pilot authorities shortly DCLG and iStandUK providing on-going support and liaison during project Pilot authorities to share experiences throughout project and provide feedback when each stage is completed Pilot brownfield registers to be published on authorities’ websites and data.gov.uk by end of June Subject to Royal Assent – first statutory registers published by all LPAs – early 2017 What will happen with the brownfield data: Expect developers and local communities to use the data to identify sites and see what's available in each local area Data could be used by others to create innovative tools DCLG will review progress on the 90% commitment by queries to: