Brownfield Land Register

What is the Brownfield Land Register (BLR)?

The purpose of the BLR is to:

  • provide developers with a way to develop on brownfield land. This is through a standardised national dataset.
  • in principle, grant permission for residential developments on such land. The identified land is entered in part two of the register.

Brownfield Land

Brownfield Land is developed land. It is, or was, occupied by a permanent structure. It is likely that infrastructure is already in place, such as:

  • utilities
  • schools
  • public transport
  • health facilities.

Because of this, it can cost much less to create new housing in this land. From both a financial and environmental aspect.

All Local Planning Authorities (LPA) need to prepare, maintain and publish a BLR. LPA should review them at least once per year.

Sites on the BLR should meet the following criteria:

  1. The land has an area of at least 0.25 hectares or is capable of supporting at least five dwellings.
  2. The land is suitable for residential development.
  3. The land is available for residential development.
  4. Residential development of the land is achievable.

The register needs to be kept in two parts:

  1. Part 1. It will include all Brownfield land that an LPA has deemed suitable for residential development.
  2. Part 2. This will be a subset of Part 1. It will include only those sites in Part 1. The LPA has deemed these sites suitable for a grant of permission in principle for housing development. Our register does not currently have any Part 2 sites.

Part 1 of our BLR includes:

  1. Permissions granted up to 30th September 2017.
  2. Allocated sites included in the Harrow Local Plan's Site Allocations. As well as sites in the Harrow and Wealdstone Action Area Plan.
  3. Sites in the 2017 SHLAA by the Mayor of London. This process included a call for sites.
  4. Permissions that have lapsed in the last five years.

For more information see: Town and Country Planning (Brownfield Land Register) Regulations 2017.

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