Gove confirms government target of 300,000 new homes a year

Michael Gove, the Levelling Up Secretary, has confirmed that Rishi Sunak’s new Government stands-by the Conservative Party 2019 manifesto target to build 300,000 new homes a year. The question remains: where to build them? The answer: Increased use of brownfield sites.

Mr Gove was speaking on a recent BBC’s Sunday with Laura Keunssberg. When asked if 300,000 new homes a year by 2025 – an increase from the current figure of 240,000 a year remained a government target, he confirmed: “Yes”.

The confirmation underlines the issue of where to build. Mindful of a General Election within the next two years, many Conservative MPs would resist building on greenfield sites. However, the increase in housing does not have to come at expense of the UK’s countryside. There is plenty of available brownfield land that could be regenerated and re-used to provide housing. Indeed, the latest ‘Recycling our Land’ report from the Council for the Protection of Rural England calculates that the use of previously developed land could accommodate over 1.3 million new homes.

“The potential of brownfield sites to provide the land needed for house building should be recognised and realised”, said Alastair McDermid, Chair of the Britpave Soil Stabilisation Task Group. “This would be facilitated by the greater use of soil stabilisation techniques that can sustainably and cost-effectively improve and strengthen the soil of brownfield land previously thought to be unsuitable for development. Soil stabilisation can also be used as part of remediation strategies to successfully transform and regenerate past industrial sites.

Soil stabilisation involves using cementitious binding materials such as lime, cement, and fly ash to treat contaminants within the soils to provide a material that is safe to use in construction. Soil stabilisation is carried out on site. It does not simply dig-up the problem soil and then dump it elsewhere. McDermid explained: “Dealing with the problem on site minimises the cost and nuisance of lorry movements, negates the need to pay landfill taxes and removes the need to import virgin aggregate.”

However, he warned: “Soil stabilisation involves a lot more than a tractor simply churning up the ground and scattering over some binder. Soil types and possible contaminants need to be assessed and tested so that the correct binder can be administered. Handling binders correctly requires a proper health and safety protocol. It also requires the use of specially developed plant to ensure that the mixing and placement of soil and binder is efficiently undertaken. As with all things, the best results are achieved when it is carried out by experienced best practice contractors. Get it right and you have a viable alternative to building on greenfield land.”