Land News

Brownfield development success, but soils still suffer

Lawson Fairbank 13th June, 2005

The decontamination of land has moved on in leaps and bounds, particularly in helping brownfield development, however agriculture is causing damage to soil.

Across England and Wales 17% of soils show signs of erosion, often as a result of intensive farming. This may lead to rivers becoming polluted with pesticides, fertilisers and suspended solids.

The Environment Agency's report - A Better Place revealed that, overall, the category of 'Land' is rated as being in a 'slightly worse' state due to poor soil management and careless use of land.

Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, Barbara Young, hoped that reclassification of land could help protect soils, and that this could come through the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. This will evaluate land usage around river basins and water catchment areas.

Due to increased pressure to develop brownfield land, rather than greenfield, the Environment Agency dealt with 1,063 hectares of contaminated land in the first six months of 2004/05, while private developers have cleaned up even more.

In the last few years, 66% of houses built in England were on previously used land, a 5% increase on previous years.

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