The Brownfield Land Assembly Trust (BLAT)
The South East is facing a serious shortage of good quality housing at affordable prices. As part of its wider strategy for reclaiming neglected and derelict brownfield sites, SEEDA has been working closely with the Housing Corporation and other partners to create the Brownfield Land Assembly Trust. The objective is to specifically identify and acquire small, derelict sites in urban regeneration areas for recycling into the housing land market. These sites are likely to have specific development cost constraints, which mens that they are not deliverable by Housing Associations or developers by conventional methods in the residential market.
This model has several unique advantages:
- Generates economies of scale by assembling clusters of sites in priority areas of housing need.
- Increases the pace of supply of affordable housing for key workers in the locations of acute need.
- Makes a direct contribution to the quality of the local built environment.
- Works in close partnership with Local Authorities and development design experts to ensure the best quality housing planning solutions for clusters of small sites in close proximity.
The Trust has been created with flexibility to adapt to a variety of housing needs in different locations. There are several key criteria which the Trust will adopt with its partners in identifying priority areas for action.
These are:
- Regeneration and growth areas where the housing stock is of poor quality and requires urgent renewal/replacement.
- High cost locations where access to a decent home is an acute problem for many in the local workforce.
- Locations subject to rapid change where it is particularly difficult for a mobile workforce to find a reasonable home.
There will be many locations which do not fit these categories precisely and the Trust is prepared to investigate and assess specific areas where housing need is particularly acute. At present, the Trust is actively searching for suitable opportunities in the following areas:
- Thames Gateway/North Kent growth area (including Ashford).
- Thames Valley – typically, Reading, Slough, Staines and Bracknell.
- Hastings.
- Southampton and Portsmouth.
In the longer term, other coastal towns and specific locations of key worker need will also be explored.
In order to be effective, the delivery processes for the Trust must be kept simple. SEEDA has agreed a series of key steps with its project partners as follows:
- Identify typical problem sites in the target locations.
- Short-list sites and agree terms to purchase.
- Identify suitable Housing Assocations or private developer partners to prepare new, high quality designed schemes for the sites.
- Commission and complete reclamation and servicing works.
- Secure planning permission and agree terms for the sale of a suitable package of sites to the preferred partner.
- Complete the site sales and immediately recycle the sale funds back into a further series of site purchases and so on.
Unfortunately, there have been many examples of poor planning in the design, layout and use of materials in the construction of new homes in the South East during the last 40 years. The Brownfield Land Assembly Trust is committed with its partners to ensure that the design quality of new homes to replace years of dereliction will be of the highest professional industry standards.
In order to achieve this, the Trust works in close partnership with the best design teams, Local Authorities, Housing Associations and private sector developers to create convenient and affordable new homes geared to local needs. Plans for new homes will be prepared adopting best practice in design technology and sustainable materials to the Building Research Establishment Environmental rating of at least 'Very Good'.
The Trust presents a new opportunity to rethink solutions for access to decent homes in neighbourhood areas where local people want to live. It is sustainable because it aims to reduce long commuting journeys by helping to increase the supply of affordable homes close to the workplace. Most importantly, perhaps, it represents a new opportunity to generate cohesive, high quality schemes to directly influence the comprehensive renewal of urban neighbourhoods by removing the persistent blight of dereliction from the past.
All inquiries to: The Brownfield Land Assembly Trust +44 (0)1634 899900
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