The Land Quality Endorsement (LQE) service at NHBC, the leading warranty and insurance provider for new homes in the UK, is celebrating its 10th anniversary by continuing its involvement at some of the UK’s highest-profile developments.
Over the past decade, NHBC’s dedicated team of land quality and geotechnical engineers have assessed some of the most contaminated sites in the UK, contributing to the restoration of over 100 sites, with the potential for 45,000 new homes, back to sustainable residential usage.
Significant LQE sites have included the former Avenue Coking Works near Chesterfield, widely regarded as one of the most heavily contaminated former industrial sites in Europe and a former chalk quarry in the Kent new town of Ebbsfleet – soon to be home to 6,250 plots. Work is also underway at the Priors Hall Park development in Corby, where the LQE team will be involved in two phases at the site, previously an ironstone quarry, working on land on for up to 2,400 new plots.
Although UK housing levels have increased over the last three years, with volumes for 2015 on track to top last year’s total of 145,000 new home registrations, there remains a great demand for new, quality homes across the country – meaning that LQE has an important role in ensuring brownfield developments remediated by independent or third party land developers are suitable for residential end use.
NHBC’s Engineering Manager John Jones said; “The LQE service can assist in providing assurance for landowners and land developers remediating land for sale to the house building sector. Indeed, NHBC’s LQE is fast becoming a pre-requisite for many developers looking at large brownfield sites, with typical locations including landfills, quarries, gas works, mine works, industrial complexes and collieries.
“We look forward to further assisting and working closely with our customers as they transform brownfield sites across the UK into land fit for new, quality homes.”
For further information on NHBC’s LQE service please visit http://www.nhbc.co.uk/LQE
