The Oldham Liberal Democrats have welcomed the creation of a so called new £400-million Brownfield Land fund, from which £81.1 million will be made available to the 10 Greater Manchester Authorities over the next five years, but say the overall investment ‘won’t scratch the surface’ when compared to the cost of remediating former industrial land in our City Region to make it fit for housing.

Alongside publishing a new White Paper ‘Planning for the Future’ last month, the Conservative Government restated its so-called commitment to building new homes on brownfield sites first; an approach the Oldham Liberal Democrats have been campaigning for years.

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, Liberal Democrat Group Leader, explained: “According to Department of Trade figures, the UK has approximately 1,000,000 acres of contaminated land, much of it in Northern towns, like Oldham Borough.  The estimated average cost of cleaning up contaminated land is £250,000 per acre – meaning a staggering £250-billion would be required to clear them all up for development.  Seen against these figures, a £400-million National Brownfield Land fund, though welcome, looks woefully inadequate if we are serious.”

“Even if Oldham received the full £81.1 million allocated to Greater Manchester, and we will not, it won’t really scratch the surface.  In a Borough with an industrial heritage of textile manufacturing; dye and chemical works; engineering and coal mining; we have an awful lot of sites that are heavily contaminated, and these will need a lot of money to clean up to make ready for any redevelopment especially housing.  We will of course accept any money we are given, but the Liberal Democrats see this as a small step forward on a long journey to securing the serious money for remediation that we need.”

The Liberal Democrats are keen to point out that most of the money allocated to Greater Manchester is not new.

Councillor Sykes added:  “When the ten Labour Greater Manchester authorities agreed to the Government’s Greater Manchester Spatial Framework to build tens of thousands of new homes across our city region over two decades, the deal came with a sweetener – a promise of £50 million from central government for remediation.  The Conservatives then reneged on that promise, something the Oldham Liberal Democrats drew public attention to in our motion to Oldham Council on this issue in July 2019.  Now the cash is back, and we have to be mindful to continue to fight to hold onto it this second time.”

The motion to the full meeting of Oldham Council on 10 July 2019 read:

Restoring Government Funding for Brownfield Housing Development

Council notes that:

• The Conservative Government in its white paper ‘Fixing our Broken Housing Market’ stated that more homes should be built ‘by maximising the contribution from brownfield sites’.
• Brownfield sites suffer from significant contamination, whether below-ground or in a building’s construction, which is the result of previous industrial use as cotton mills; chemical and coal gas plants; coal mines; and dye works.
• Decontaminating such sites is very expensive at an average cost of £250,000 per acre and this cost often renders housing developments unaffordable.
• According to Department of Trade figures, approximately 1 million acres of brownfield sites are contaminated.
• Much of this land is in Northern towns, like Oldham, a legacy of their industrial past.
• In the Outline Housing Package agreed between the ten Greater Manchester authorities and the Conservative Government in 2017, a ‘land fund’ worth up to £50 million was pledged by central government to support the development of housing on brownfield sites by paying for the cost of remediation.
• The Conservative Government has recently reneged on this pledge.

Council condemns the decision by the Conservative Government to withdraw its offer of the Outline Housing Package, which will make the delivery of new homes on brownfield sites unaffordable and force more development onto the Green Belt, a direct contradiction of the Government’s own stated policy.

Council resolves to ask the Chief Executive to:

• Write to the Secretary of State for Communities and Housing urging the minister to restore the Outline Housing Package to fund the remediation of brownfield sites in Greater Manchester
• Copy in our local MPs, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, the leaders of the other Greater Manchester local authorities and the Chair of the Local Government Association asking them for their support for Oldham’s position.

Proposed by: Councillor Diane Williamson

Seconded by: Councillor Garth Harkness