Housing and Planning Minister, Gavin Barwell, has announced local authorities are to gain new measures to speed up development of brownfield sites.

Councils will receive new tools to ramp up development of derelict and underused land, helping to unlock sites for thousands of new houses.

Local authorities will produce and maintain up-to-date, publicly available registers of brownfield sites available for housing locally. The initiative will help housebuilders identify suitable brownfield sites quickly, while communities will be able to highlight local derelict or underused building sites that are primed for redevelopment.

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The move is part of the government's plan to speed up house building, with other measures including a £3 billion Homes Builders Fund and an additional £1.2bn to unlock at least 30,000 Starter Homes on brownfield land.

Speaking today, 03 April, Minister Barwell said: "We need to build more homes in this country so making sure that we re-use brownfield land is crucial. We want to bring life back to abandoned sites, create thousands more homes and help protect our valued countryside.

"These new registers will give local authorities and developers the tools to do this."

(LM/MH)