Call to re-develop brownfield sites

The Calcutt Review, set up by former communities secretary Ruth Kelly last year, insisted that house-building targets could be met by focusing on re-developing inner-city brownfield sites.

But it said that the market conditions had to be created to attract the necessary investment to deliver 240,000 homes a year up to 2016.

John Calcutt, a former chief executive of English Partnerships who headed the review, also warned more developments would be forced out of town unless towns and cities were regenerated now.

"Much more former commercial or industrial land should be used, and whilst new settlements and greenfield sites will have to make a contribution, the proportion of greenfield development should be minimised," Mr Calcutt said.

"We must also ensure that building homes and sustainable mixed use communities remains viable for the housebuilding industry.

"We need to take account of the costs of Government policies and regulation on energy efficiency, quality, affordability and tariffs for surrounding infrastructure, and the often negative value of some blighted urban sites."

Housing minister Yvette Cooper said: "We urgently need to build more affordable, greener homes for this and future generations. But we cannot afford to wait for developers who may drag their feet once planning permission has been granted, hoping to benefit from increases in land value.

"That's why we are looking at what changes could be made to the planning system to make sure that developers really are making a substantial start on their projects.

"We also want to stamp out any potential for hidden land banking by making sure that land assets are completely transparent in financial statements."