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Contaminated Brownfield Sites

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for North-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Moss) on securing the debate. He spoke with great feeling about his constituents in Littleport near Ely and the difficulties that they face because their houses are built on the site of an old gasworks. It is extremely difficult for people who are unable to sell their homes and who live in fear for their health. They are unable to escape such health hazards, and, through scientific developments, by-products from coal and gas production will become easier to identify as time goes by. My hon. Friend asked who was responsible and made it clear that the responsibility was historic. It was difficult to pin down one group who should or could foot the bill for clean-up. It is a great shame that the guidance from DEFRA and the Environment Agency is so confused. Although we all have benzo(a)pyrene in fires in our homes, in the right concentration it can be extremely dangerous. He did an extremely good job in identifying the problems involved and I have a great deal of sympathy for those poor people in Littleport. I hope that the Minister will tell us who will help them. The hon. Members for Heywood and Middleton (Jim Dobbin), for Cheadle (Mark Hunter) and for Rochdale (Paul Rowen) spoke with great feeling about their constituency cases, although I have to take issue with one minor point of the hon. Member for Cheadle. He said that the burden could fall very heavily on local councils. That is incompatible with his party's policy on local income tax, given that local councils with the worst contamination have constituents with some of the lowest incomes. I am sure that he will forgive me for saying that. The debate provides us with a valuable opportunity to discuss the brownfield situation in England and the Government's disjointed strategy. The development of brownfield sites, contaminated or not, can play an important role in reducing the housing shortage and preserving our environment. Current Government estimates suggest that 3.8 million new homes will be needed in England by 2021, and if we are determined to preserve the green belt, we will have to develop brownfield sites. In 1998, the then Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions set a target for 60 per cent. of new dwellings to be built on previously developed land, often referred to as brownfield land, by 2008. The real test is whether we can achieve that target. I believe and hope that we are likely to reach it, but to do so it will be necessary to build on contaminated land. I am concerned about the effectiveness of current Government policy towards contaminated brownfield sites. The national land database, which is co-ordinated through the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, estimates that 64,130 hectares of brownfield sites are unused or may be available for development, of which only 28,650 have been deemed suitable for housing. In some localities in England, brownfield sites constitute a significant proportion of land use. For example, in Wolverhampton, about a third of the area in the Short Heath and Wednesfield South wards has been classified as brownfield. Overall, brownfield density in parts of Wolverhampton is nearly 15 per cent., in parts of Sunderland it is 11 per cent. and in parts of Bradford it is 9 per cent. Nevertheless, given the industrial past of many of those sites, the Government do not keep accurate central records on the number of sites that are contaminated. Records are only collated at local government level. Moreover, details of developments and remediation for contaminated sites are dealt with through a variety of Government organisations, including the Rural Development Service and the Environment Agency, as well as local government. To clarify the situation, we must have records from central and local levels. We must also know which Department is overseeing the remediation of contaminated brownfield sites. Is it DEFRA, with a responsibility for the environment, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, with its responsibility for planning matters, or even the Treasury? The Department of Health and the Department for Work and Pensions were also mentioned. One of those Departments at least must take the lead. It is hardly surprising that with all those different organisations, authorities and Whitehall Departments managing brownfield sites and their remediation, local authorities have failed to make full use of funds available for investigation and contamination clean-up. Although the Environment Agency estimates that there are between 5,000 and 20,000 contaminated brownfield sites in the UK, not all are brownfield. We must know from the Government exactly how many are. In a report published in 2000 which surveyed eight locations throughout England, the national brownfield sites project found:"““The highest remediation cost is attributable to those sites that are categorized as contaminated and/or derelict.””" Additionally, the Environment Agency has stated that the cost of developing brownfield land is more expensive than greenfield. It stated also:"““The regulatory complexities of reclaiming some brownfield land may . . . be a barrier to new development.””" Contamination is a major problem environmentally and economically. It must be redressed so that development can take place. We must know the costs, and only the Government in Whitehall can provide us with that information. I hope that the Minister will ensure that those figures are produced. Once the costs are known, effective action can be taken. We should like to know when it will take place. The Government could make progress on cleaning up and developing contaminated brownfield sites by adopting policies, such as tax incentives, that are designed to encourage private investment, especially in areas where the economic costs of clean-up deter investment. Some 55 per cent. of brownfield land is privately owned and 28 per cent. is publicly owned. If land is to be developed and, if contaminated, cleaned up, the Government must use a range of economic instruments to promote such activity, particularly in the private sector. If they were to promote clean-up and development of privately owned brownfield sites, the stability that it would offer would provide private developers with the confidence to invest. When there are plans afoot to develop brownfield sites, currently developers must make provisions for the investigation of contamination and the clean-up of those sites. The Government could help by making the planning process easier and by performing their own studies to ensure that contaminated land is cleaned up effectively. The Environment Agency advocates that, favouring economic incentives such as corporation tax relief and landfill tax exemption. Developers can qualify for tax incentives from the Treasury, such as a 50 per cent. relief for ““qualifying land remediation expenditure.”” None the less, the Government could do more, including offering VAT relief for new developments. Such incentives would be particularly constructive in promoting developments in the north-east, where many developers are deterred because the high costs of clean-up and red tape do not always make projects economically viable. Those incentives could also be repeated to support the remediation of publicly owned brownfield sites. I understand that the business regulation team has formed a taskforce to consider the possibility of granting a single remediation permit for brownfield developers, and I hope that it will cut through the red tape and bureaucracy that restrains development. None the less, I am concerned about the implications of the decision in the European Court of Justice to classify contaminated soil as landfill. It opens up a new set of red tape and bureaucracy that may serve only to replace any savings made by the business regulation team. I hope that the Government ensure that the decision of the Court does not damage the prospects for brownfield development. I should be interested to know from the Minister how the Government have responded to its decision. We want to continue to develop brownfield sites, making them available for residential and business use. We must ensure that the Government can facilitate the clean-up of such sites, so that they become available for development. We know how much land is brownfield, but we need to know from the Government the cost of clean-up. My hon. Friend the Member for North-East Cambridgeshire and the hon. Members for Heywood and Middleton, for Rochdale and for Cheadle spoke with great expertise and with dismay at the situations in their constituencies. I hope that the Minister will turn his energy and his efforts to assisting the existing situation and the future of brownfield development.