Brownfield Redevelopment: Midlands 2019

• Detailing how strategic sites are identified to bring forward for regeneration
  • at what point is land quality considered?
• Exploring sources of funding to make land viable for development

Patricia Willoughby

Head of Policy - Housing and Regeneration, West Midlands Combined Authority

• Evaluating the changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF2) and the extent to which they support brownfield development:
  • viability assessments and the Existing Use Value Plus approach
  • housing delivery tests
  • to what extent is Section 11: making effective use of land which encourages better use of brownfield land effective and how?
• Examining the changes to pre-commencement conditions The Town and Country Planning (Pre-commencement Conditions) Regulations 2018 and the implications for how contaminated land is managed through the planning process:
  • how can consistency be achieved across regions with regards to planning and pre-commencement conditions?

Ian Mercer

Partner and Head of Development, Bruton Knowles

The Brownfield Research & Innovation Centre (BRIC), an ERDF supported project, established to address the issue of lack of redevelopment of brownfield sites across the Black Country is developing the BRIC Index. At the heart of this work is the development of comprehensive GIS based brownfield register that brings together information on ownership, planning permissions and restrictions, previous land-use, contamination, geology, soil, water table, access to utilities and roads, remediation methodologies, the possible costs of bringing a site back into use and innovative approaches to allow sites to become useful again. By making use of virtual and augmented reality to allow information to be accessed in a user-friendly way, the BRIC index will enable predictions to be made about the type of contamination present on a site based on previous land use, and therefore provide an estimate of remediation costs. and on the basis of these predictions providing an estimate of remediation costs.  This presentation will explain the BRIC Index in more detail and its use as a cost-benefit analysis tool for brownfield site redevelopment.

Dr Noukhez Ahmed

Researcher, Brownfield Research & Innovation Centre (BRIC)

Mark Schneider

Manager, Brownfield Research & Innovation Centre (BRIC)

Harworth Group is one of the largest property and regeneration companies across the North of England and the Midlands, owning and managing over 21,500 acres on around 120 sites. This presentation will demonstrate Harworth’s achievements on their Waverley site in Rotherham, before looking at how their Coalville and Ironbridge sites are progressing. Stakeholder engagement has been a significant aspect in all three of these schemes.

Tim Cawood

Project Manager, Midlands, Harworth Group

• Assessing what impact the initial brownfield registers compiled have had so far in bringing forward sites for development and the extent to which they are a genuine workable tool:
  • what improvements are needed to make them a useful planning and development resource?
• Identifying the barriers to the availability and development of brownfield land and other challenging sites and the measures that could be taken to influence these:

• establishing value tipping points and successfully negotiating the factors that influence viability and delivery
• innovative solutions to “unlock” complex or low land value sites

• Exploring how the process from site investigation to remediation to redevelopment could be simplified and accelerated:
  • what information regarding possible contamination should be provided by applicants, and at what stage in the planning process?
  • how could the complexity of viability assessments be improved?
  • how can local authorities better monitor compliance with agreed pre-commencement conditions?
  • to what extent can the National Quality Mark Scheme (NQMS) help facilitate contaminated sites through the planning process?
• Understanding developers’ key drivers when choosing potential sites and why some are considered more attractive than others:
  • the view on brownfield sites and the level and types of risk developers are prepared to take
  • how contaminated land risk assessment and remediation fits into the bigger development picture
  • land-banking and how sites are selected to be brought forward for development
• Identifying what incentives and mechanisms would be most useful to developers in encouraging brownfield development
• Strategies for improving early engagement, better communication and collaboration between local authorities, developers, remediation consultants & contractors, and other stakeholders to speed up the delivery of brownfield sites

Gerald Kells

Strategic Policy and Campaigns Advisor, Independent Consultant working with Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE)

Tim Cawood

Project Manager, Midlands, Harworth Group

Bilston Urban Village (BUV) is a 37ha site with a legacy of heavy industrial use including coal mining, foundries and other metal works. Its rundown state was affecting the viability of the wider area’s regeneration aspirations and the creation of a more sustainable community.

BUV had been identified as a priority area for public and private investment in numerous strategies adopted over the last 50 years. A number of ‘traditional’ site investigation and contamination risk assessments had been undertaken at the site dating back to the 1970s but none were able to give the market sufficient confidence that the site was developable. The private sector saw the site as “high risk”.

Through the use of ground modelling, GIS and risk analysis techniques, Arup and its partners, working in partnership with City of Wolverhampton Council identified a number of realistic, viable and deliverable options for taking the site forward for development and informing a high-level Masterplan. This included “soft market testing” which helped to change the negative perceptions of Bilston as an investment location and the raising of market confidence in the area.

Successful re-evaluation of the existing site constraints, informed the Delivery Strategy for this deprived area. The Strategy is now being delivered by the public and private sectors.

Yolande Macklin

Senior Contaminated Land Specialist, Arup

Rod Griffin

Associate, Infrastructure, Arup

British Geological Survey (BGS) have developed a GIS ground risk prioritisation tool that evaluates sub-surface abnormality and calculates risk scores and cost estimates for soil and groundwater contamination and land instability issues. This presentation will outline the tool and its potential use in early stage viability testing for brownfields, including practical examples of its application to over 4000 sites for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and 10 Local Authorities there.

Darren Beriro

Geoenvironmental Scientist, British Geological Survey

• The (monetary) value of information
• The (financial) benefits of detailed site characterisation
• The (monetary) returns of investing in a good risk assessor
• The (time) value of telemetry and continuous data
• The (financial) payback of integrating a bespoke remediation strategy‎ with the redevelopment

Dr Paul Nathanail

Technical Director - Contaminated Land, GHD

The rich industrial history of the Black Country and the West Midlands coalfield poses a number of challenges for the brownfield developer, with geological conditions that are somewhat unique to this region with respect to coal mining legacy risk.

Due consideration is required at the earliest available opportunity to establish the risks that could be posed by historical coal mining to a future development. An appropriate scheme of desk-study, investigation and monitoring may be required to understand those features which could require remediation or long term management.

Helen Bennett

Technical Team Leader, The Coal Authority

• Detailing exactly what funding, support and expertise is available to de-risk and redevelop brownfield sites:
• what will be expected of Local Authorities from such partnerships?
• how do Homes England allocate and prioritise funding and support?
• accessing the Marginal Viability Fund
• Detailing the types of projects that have successfully received Government funding and the criteria that helped secure this money
• Exploring what “gap” or “top-up” funding is available to schemes that have initial investment but lack sufficient funding to progress

Karl Tupling

General Manager - Midlands, Homes England

• Examining land remediation tax relief – overview of key entitlement conditions and scope of allowable costs  
• Land remediation relief in practice – common pitfalls and planning opportunities including the interaction with grant funding
• Research and development tax relief – using the tax relief to subsidise the cost of resolving complex challenges on brownfield sites

Ben de Waal

Director, The Fiscal Incentives Group