Before you buy
Are brownfield sites safe?
If you're considering buying a newly-built home, you'll probably be taking a good look at its price and location. But how long will you spend considering the ground beneath your feet?
In these days of stringent planning policies, more and more new home developments are being built on so-called 'brownfield' sites - areas that were once industrial estates or rubbish tips.
In fact, the Government wants up to 60 per cent of the 4.1 million new homes that will be needed by 2016 to be built on brownfield sites - which makes it more than likely that your new home could be sitting on any manner of rubbish or toxic waste.
Decontamination
In most cases, brownfield sites pose little threat to their new inhabitants. Trustworthy property developers take pains to decontaminate the land, either by completely removing contaminants or by sealing them underneath a plastic and clay membrane.
But the decontamination measures aren't entirely foolproof, as environmental group Friends of the Earth is keen to point out.
"It's never possible for these sites to be completely safe," says senior campaigner Roger Higman. "In many cases it can be quite easy for the membranes to be breached or for pollutants to leak through in other ways."
