Solving the housing crisis remains a UK Government priority, in spite of the new-look cabinet unveiled by Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

This was reinforced by the new secretary of state for housing, Robert Jenrick MP, who promised to ‘strain every sinew’ to help communities build the new homes they desperately need.

During a recent visit to Wolverhampton, the secretary of state for housing spoke of his mission to increase house building to allow more young people and families to get on the property ladder.

He also urged local authorities to develop ambitious plans and believes we as a society need to be very aspirational in our housing strategy.

This rings true for many of the West Midlands’ councils; the Greater Birmingham HMA Strategic Growth study has identified a minimum requirement to build 205,000 new houses between 2011 and 2031.

The main challenge facing the region is capacity. Developers and local authorities are hamstrung by the limited availability of sustainable land. Many local authorities are experiencing a housing shortfall in provision – Birmingham 37,900 (2011 – 2031) and the Black Country up to 22,000 (2016 – 36).

Cleaning up contaminated brownfield sites around existing sustainable transport links and releasing them for housing, will assist local planning authorities in tackling the shortfall. Achieving the three principals of sustainable development when plan making – economic, social and environmental – will be significantly increased. But more importantly, the financial viability of the development will be realised and the developer will secure a profit.

At M. Lambe Construction, we recommend engaging with us right from the start to ensure your land remediation strategy is the most cost-efficient possible.

An example is at Miller Homes’ Hadley Park scheme in Telford, where the initial design included a surplus of 7,406m3 (Approximately 16,293 tonnes) of material to go off site to a landfill. We worked with our client to put together an alternative solution that retained as much of the materials on site and significantly reduced landfill costs. The material was graded, chemically tested and deemed suitable as fill on one of our local projects.

So, to work with a specialist contractor who has the experience and expertise to help regenerate your brownfield site, call us on 0121 554 2108 to talk with one of our experts.