Tower Hamlets Brownfield Land Register 2018
Source: data.gov.uk (2018-01-15)

London Borough of Tower Hamlets council's Brownfield Land Register published in January 2018 in accordance with regulation 1B(2) of the Town and Country Planning (Brownfield Land Register) Regulations 2017.

Brownfield Land Register Methodology 
 
 
 
London Borough of Tower Hamlets 
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What is the purpose of Brownfield Land Register? 
Brownfield Land Registers will provide up-to-date, publicly available information on 
brownfield land that is suitable for housing having regard to the criteria set out in regulation 
4 of the Town and Country Planning (Brownfield Land Register) Regulations 2017. Local 
planning authorities (LPAs) will be able to trigger a grant of permission in principle for 
residential development for sites in their registers where they follow the required 
procedures. Registers will be in two parts, Part 1 will comprise all brownfield sites 
appropriate for residential development and Part 2 those sites granted permission in 
principle. Registers should be published locally as open data and will provide transparent 
information about suitable and available sites. This will improve the quality and consistency 
of data held by local planning authorities which will provide certainty for developers and 
communities, encouraging investment in local areas. 
What are local planning authorities required to do? 
Regulation 3 of the Town and Country Planning (Brownfield Land Register) Regulations 2017 
requires local planning authorities in England to prepare, maintain and publish registers of 
previously developed (brownfield) land by 31st December 2017. Brownfield sites that meet 
the relevant criteria must be entered in Part 1 of brownfield land registers. Sites entered in 
Part 2 of the brownfield land registers are granted permission in principle. 
 Regulation 17 requires local planning authorities to review their registers at least once a 
year. 
What is Brownfield Land? 
The definition of brownfield land is essentially previously developed land. It has the same 
meaning as land of that description in Annex 2 of the National Planning Policy Framework 
i.e. “Land which is or was occupied by a permanent structure, including the curtilage of the 
developed and (although it should not be assumed that the whole of the curtilage should be 
developed) and any associated fixed surface infrastructure. This excludes: land that is or has 
been occupied by agricultural or forestry buildings; land that has been developed for 
minerals extraction or waste disposal by landfill purposes where provision for restoration has 
been made through development  control procedures; land in built-up areas such as private 
residential gardens, parks, recreation grounds and allotments; and land that was previously-
developed but where the remains of the permanent structure or fixed surface structure have 
blended into the landscape in the process of time”. 
Which authorities are required to keep a register of brownfield land suitable for housing? 
 Local planning authorities specified in section 37 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase 
Act 2004 (“the 2004 Act”) are required to have a brownfield land register covering their 
area. These are district councils; London borough councils; metropolitan district councils; 
county councils in relation to any area in England for which there is no district council; the 
Broads Authority; a National Park authority and a Mayoral Development Corporation where 
it is the local planning authority for the purposes of Part 2 of the 2004 Act. 

Brownfield Land Register Methodology 
 
 
 
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What is Part 1 of a Brownfield Land Register? 
Part 1 of a brownfield land register will comprise all brownfield sites that a local planning 
authority has assessed and consider to be appropriate for residential development, having 
carried out  procedures such as consultation where  deemed  appropriate. 
LPAs are required to have regard to the development plan, including the Local Plan, when 
making decisions about which sites to include on their registers.  
What is Part 2 of a Brownfield Land Register? 
Part 2 of a brownfield land register is a subset of Part 1. Part 2 will comprise only those sites 
in Part 1 that the local planning authority has decided that the land would be suitable for a 
grant of permission in principle for residential led development. 
 What sites should be included on the Brownfield Land Register? 
The Regulations state that a parcel of land which meets the following criteria must be 
included on the Brownfield Land Register: 
 
i. 
It has an area of at least 0.25 hectares or is capable of supporting at least 5 
dwellings; (The LPA may, if it chooses, enter land onto the BLR where the land is less 
than 0.25 hectares or is not capable of supporting at least 5 dwellings, so long as the 
land meets the other criteria.) 
 
ii. 
It is suitable for residential development, meaning it is either allocated in a local 
development document; has planning permission (including PiP) for residential 
development or, in the opinion of the LPA, it is appropriate for residential 
development having regard to any adverse impact on the natural environment; the 
local built environment and any adverse impact on the local amenity which such 
development might cause for intended occupiers of the development or for 
occupiers of neighbouring properties;  
 
iii. 
It is available for residential development, meaning the landowner/developer 
currently intends to sell/develop the land, or the LPA consider there are no issues 
relating to the ownership of the land or other legal impediments which might 
prevent residential development of the land taking place; and  
 
iv. 
Residential development of the land is achievable, meaning that, in the opinion of 
the local planning authority, the development is likely to take place within 15 years 
of the entry date.  
 
 
 
 
 

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These include consideration of whether the identified sites are suitable for residential use 
and free from any constraints that cannot be mitigated. Particular regard must be given to 
key elements of the NPPF including:  
 
i. 
Whether any specific policies within the NPPF indicate that development should be 
restricted;  
ii. 
The location of the site and whether it represents a sustainable opportunity for 
residential development having regard to the ability to access the site by non-car 
modes of transport;  
iii. 
The likely amenity of future occupants and any potential conflict with other 
adjoining or nearby uses for example through excessive noise;  
iv. 
Whether the loss of any existing use would be likely to have a harmful effect (e.g. 
loss of a community facility or employment opportunity, impact on the vitality and 
viability of a town centre);  
v. 
Any particular site-specific considerations that could impact on bringing forward an 
alternative residential use on the site (e.g. excessive contamination due to a previous 
use); 
vi. 
Flooding and whether the site would be suitable for residential use in light of the 
available information on potential flood risk;  
vii. 
Potential impact on the natural environment including whether the site is of high 
environmental value and/or development for residential use would be likely to have 
a harmful impact on biodiversity and ecology that cannot be mitigated; and  
viii. 
Whether the development of the site for residential use would have a harmful effect 
on the historic environment that cannot be mitigated  
 
Preparing the Brownfield register  
 
Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) is clear that existing planning permissions and sites 
identified through the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) is the starting 
point for compiling the BLR. The London Borough of Tower Hamlets has recently completed 
an updated SHLAA as part of a London-wide exercise. All relevant sites from the SHLAA 
exercise which meet the criteria in the Regulations have been included in the BLR. This 
primarily comprises existing permissions and relevant site allocations from the Local Plan.  
There are some sites which do not have planning permission or in a site allocation which are 
also included. These sites were submitted as part of the SHLAA call for sites exercise. 
 
National guidance states that when deciding if a site should be entered onto the register, 
LPAs should have regard to the development plan (i.e. the adopted Local Plan and ‘made’ 
neighbourhood plans), national policies/ guidance, and guidance issued by the Secretary of 
State. Officers have therefore only included sites which are policy compliant in principle.  
In preparing the BLR, officers monitored applications pending a decision with a view to 
including them in BLR if they were approved prior to the publication of the BLR. The status 
of these pending applications was monitored until 27th November 2017. 
 

Brownfield Land Register Methodology 
 
 
 
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Part 1 of a BLR has been compiled and this is attached as appendix 1. In line with legislation 
it includes:  
 
i. 
Sites with planning permission at 27th November 2017 
ii. 
Sites on previously developed land already identified through the council’s annual 
monitoring processes including sites previously identified in the SHLAA  
iii. 
New sites that have emerged since the last SHLAA was published, or have gained 
permission up to 27th November 2017, and  
iv. 
Sites submitted through the ‘call for sites ‘exercise which meet the criteria for 
inclusion. 
 
Identifying housing-led sites  
As noted above, only sites whose main purpose is housing development, i.e. housing-led 
development, are included on the BLR, and there are some sites – permissions, allocations 
and/or trajectory sites – which do not have a main purpose of residential development.  
In determining whether a site is housing-led for the purposes of this iteration of the BLR, the 
council have taken into account the existence of any priority land uses (based on specific 
designations) and/or the balance of residential and commercial floor space on any given site 
(based either on a planning permission or capacity assumptions from a site allocation or 
SHLAA assessment).  
This determination is a case-by-case issue and it is not considered practical to set a fixed 
threshold to determine whether a site is housing-led, e.g. more than 50% of floor space for 
housing.  
 
METHODOLOGY: 
 
The Council has identified sites that meet the above criteria by assessment of the following:   
 
STAGE 1- SITE IDENTIFICATION 
 
The starting point for the site selection process is to ensure that the Council has as wide 
range of site options as possible so that all reasonable site options have been identified and 
assessed. When undertaking this stage we considered the following datasets. 
 
i. 
SHLAA Sites -The first step was to assess all the sites identified via the SHLAA 2017 
exercise and polygonise them. These sites were matched against the Housing 
Trajectory master list to identify the status and phase of each site. 
 
ii. 
Planning Database - planning data was assessed to identify all the planning 
applications, both approvals and refusals within the current Local Plan period (April 
2013 onwards), which has the capability to deliver 5 or more units or has a site area 
greater than 0.25 hectares. 
 
iii. 
London Development Database - LDD data was matched against our planning 
dataset to identify all the commenced planning applications.  
 

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iv. 
Site Allocations - Site Allocations from the Local Plan were polygonised and included 
for analysis. 
 
v. 
Call for Sites - A call for sites exercise ran for 4 weeks (2nd October to 30th October 
2017) on LBTH Website and advertisements placed in HA magazine, 24 Housing, 
Estates weekly, Inside Housing, East London Advertiser, LGC, E Standard, Architects 
Journal, Community Care, Guardian Society & Property Week and use of LBTH social 
media. 
 
vi. 
Non Domestic Rates and Council Tax Data- Data from Non Domestic Rates and 
Council Tax were assessed to identify vacant sites which have the capability to 
deliver 5 or more units or have a site area greater than 0.25 hectares. 
 
STAGE 2 – DESKTOP ANALYSIS 
 
This stage included a detailed assessment of the identified datasets to identify which ones 
were suitable to include on the BLR. 
 
The datasets went through the following stages of filtering (referred to as iterations) to 
produce the Brownfield Land Register:  
 
Iteration 1- 
 
SHLAA sites were assessed to identify all the Approvals, Potential Developments and Low 
Probability Sites.  During this Iteration the phases that fell outside of the Local Plan period 
(beyond 2031) sites were excluded. 
 
Approved Planning applications were matched against the Local Development Database 
(LDD) Dataset to identify which permissions had commenced.  Approvals that had 
commenced were excluded in accordance with the Brownfield Land Register Guidance. 
 
Site Allocations were checked individually to identify the commenced sites and also 
excluded. 
 
Council Tax and Non Domestic Rates data was assessed and it was identified that the vacant 
sites are already included as part of our SHLAA. 
 
Iteration 2- 
 
SHLAA sites were further refined to just include approved applications and the site 
boundaries verified against the Planning application boundaries.  
 
Planning applications approved were then further filtered to remove any applications that 
also fall within the identified SHLAA sites in order to avoid duplication. 
 
Site Allocations were checked individually and any non – housing led sites were removed 
from the list (e.g. sites within employment designations such as the POL). 

Brownfield Land Register Methodology 
 
 
 
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Sites that were deemed appropriate from the Council’s recent SHLAA call for sites exercise 
were included in the register. 
 
Iteration 3 - 
 
Live planning applications were excluded from the register as these are currently under 
consideration. 
 
Iteration 4 - 
 
The remaining sites were assessed against the GLA’s density Matrix to make sure that the 
identified sites pass through the site constraints. 
 
STAGE 3 – COMPILING THE REGISTER 
 
The data standard has been designed by DCLG to ensure that brownfield land registers are 
accessible for those entering data and navigating the information they contain. The 
information will also be capable of digital analysis which can be used to gain a more 
comprehensive understanding about the location and capacity of brownfield land suitable 
for residential development. 
 
A brownfield land register is to be published in a spreadsheet style and in a GIS format; that 
is, as a file containing a series of rows, where each row has a consistent set of columns. Each 
row will represent a single brownfield site.  
 
STAGE 4 – PUBLISHING THE REGISTER 
 
The Brownfield Land Register will be published on the London Borough of Tower Hamlets 
website.  
The BLR Register will be added on data.gov.uk to enable DCLG and others to harvest it as an 
open dataset.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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SITES IDENTIFIED FOR INCLUSION IN THE BROWNFIELD LAND REGISTER: 
 
ID 
Site 
Reference 
 
Site Name 
 
Source  
Site Area 
Hectares 
1 
BR_LBTH_01 
Bishopsgate Goods Yard 
Site Allocation 
4.46 
2 
BR_LBTH_02 
Marian Place Gas Works and The Oval 
Site Allocation 
4.41 
3 
BR_LBTH_03 
Whitechapel South 
Site Allocation 
12.72 
4 
BR_LBTH_04 
Bow Common Gas Works 
Site Allocation 
3.94 
5 
BR_LBTH_05 
Chrisp Street Town Centre 
Site Allocation 
3.92 
6 
BR_LBTH_06 
Ailsa Street 
Site Allocation 
5.76 
7 
BR_LBTH_07 
Leven Road Gas Works 
Site Allocation 
8.56 
8 
BR_LBTH_08 
Aspen Way 
Site Allocation 
4.61 
9 
BR_LBTH_09 
Crossharbour Town Centre 
Site Allocation 
6.16 
10 
BR_LBTH_10 
Limeharbour 
Site Allocation 
5.25 
11 
BR_LBTH_11 
Marsh Wall East 
Site Allocation 
3.61 
12 
BR_LBTH_12 
Marsh Wall West 
Site Allocation 
6.83 
13 
BR_LBTH_13 
Millharbour South 
Site Allocation 
4.02 
14 
BR_LBTH_14 
Millharbour 
Site Allocation 
5.05 
15 
BR_LBTH_15 
Reuters LTD 
Site Allocation 
2.71 
16 
BR_LBTH_16 
Westferry Printworks 
Site Allocation 
6.40 
17 
BR_LBTH_17 
42-44 Thomas Road 
PA/16/01041 
0.31 
18 
BR_LBTH_18 
Old petrol station Leamouth Road 
PA/16/01763 
0.32 
19 
BR_LBTH_19 
Hercules Wharf, Castle Wharf and Union 
Wharf Orchard Place 
PA/14/03594 
2.57 
20 
BR_LBTH_20 
Land at Fleet Street Hill 
PA/13/01637 
0.40 
21 
BR_LBTH_21 
Site At land adjacent railway viaduct 
Mantus Road 
PA/12/01758 
0.28 
22 
BR_LBTH_22 
Glaucus Street/Violet Road 
PA/12/02494 
0.18 
23 
BR_LBTH_23 
Stroudley Walk Market Stroudley Walk 
PA/10/00373 
0.86 
24 
BR_LBTH_24 
Whitechapel Station & surrounding 
land/buildings 
Call for Site 
0.97 
25 
BR_LBTH_25 
Boatmans House, 2 Selsdon Way, London, 
E14 9LA 
PA/15/03256 
0.11 
26 
BR_LBTH_26 
82 West India Dock Road  
PA/16/01920 
1.58