New legislation coming into force today could force developers to reduce house-building as brownfield sites in some areas of the UK become less viable and more expensive to build on, warns RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors).

The Hazardous Waste Provisions has at one stroke reduced the number of landfill sites across England and Wales allowed to take contaminated waste from 250 to 10.

RICS believes this will have huge implications for house building on brownfield land where demolition inevitably produces waste. Developers will be faced with escalating remediation costs and the probable difficulties of finding suitable landfill sites. They may be forced to turn to greenfield land as an alternative.

RICS spokesperson Myles Kitcher says: “This is about as far from joined up government as you can get and developers, the housing market and the environment will suffer.”

“A cut in the supply of brownfield land will mean the government miss their 60 percent target for residential development on brownfield land.”

“The big projects may still go ahead, but it is the smaller developments which will suffer. Sites such as old gas works in former mill towns will not be redeveloped. This amounts to regeneration neglect.”

“Also, pressure will increase on greenfield land. We predict an additional area equivalent to the size of a typical market town may need to be brought under development.”

“The problem will be particularly acute in the South East, because none of the 10 approved landfill sites are in this area. Despite the fact the South East is the focus of the government's recently announced Sustainable Communities house-building programme, the mileage that contaminated waste travels will soar and pressure on already crowded roads will increase.”

“The government must act now to limit the damage. The development industry has been sending huge levels of hazardous waste to landfill in order to complete disposal by the 16th July deadline. This means that the real decrease in the amount of brownfield land coming onto the market will not really be visible for another 6 to 12 months.”