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The contaminated land regime and austerity

Lloyd Andrew Brown (Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK)

International Journal of Law in the Built Environment

ISSN: 1756-1450

Article publication date: 10 October 2016

299

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the remediation of contaminated land has been damaged, perhaps immeasurably, in a period of devastating and crushing austerity.

Design/methodology/approach

A legal doctrinal and regulatory analysis of the contaminated land regime under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) 1990 was used to investigate the extent to which austerity changes have affected future contaminated land identification and remediation.

Findings

Austerity changes have impacted upon Part 2A of the EPA 1990, the planning system and development incentives. The recent changes are going to contribute to the problem of the under-resourcing of local authorities and are likely to reduce voluntary remediation by developers. As a result, future contaminated land clean-up is going to decrease.

Originality/value

Originality/value is assured because, as far as the author is aware, there is no other literature in this research area dealing specifically with the coalition’s adverse impact on Part 2A; this paper fills the knowledge gap that existed in the research field.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Bob Lee and Elen Stokes for their comments and support. Gratitude also to the reviewers for their feedback, and to Julie Adshead for her help and support as editor. Any mistakes in this work belong solely to the author.

Citation

Brown, L.A. (2016), "The contaminated land regime and austerity", International Journal of Law in the Built Environment, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 210-225. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLBE-11-2015-0019

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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