Land that has previously been used for any purpose and is no longer in use for that purpose is known as a brownfield site. Contaminated land is automatically classed as brown field, though not all land is contaminated. Many people also mistakenly believe that brownfield sites are industrial use.
According to Lord Best, Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Government has a target of building 60 per cent of new homes on brownfield sites. If these were met, at least 84,000 homes would still need to be built, each year on undeveloped greenfield sites.