Contaminated Land for Development - Is It Only The Polluter Who Pays?

Contaminated land offers excellent opportunities for development. But make sure you are properly covered.

Despite the liabilities for developers and their financial backers, there are certain advantages in developing contaminated land. Apart from the cheapness of the sites, bringing this land back into productive use, provided the costs of remediation are economical, is a considerable planning benefit. Planning consents for uses at a higher value or density than would otherwise have been the case are often granted. Stockley Park and Bedfont Lakes, both of which have been built on contaminated Green Belt land near Heathrow Airport, are excellent examples of high class developments on contaminated land in the Green Belt.