Contaminated land

Advice for residents and householders

If you have a concern your land has been contaminated then you should:

contact your house insurance company so that the matter can be investigated or
seek independent advice from an experienced environmental consultant.

We have a duty to make sure land contamination does not pose a significant risk to public health or the environment and can assist you with reviewing any proposals or reports provided.

For more information on what is contaminated land, please see the external links section of this page.

What can be done about it?

Cleaning up (remediation) of contaminated land can take many forms depending on the type of contamination:

removing the source of contamination
covering the contamination with clean material
mixing it with cement
treating the soil with microbes
alter the design of the development to minimise the risk if you are undertaking building works

For more information on how land contamination is assessed and any risks managed, please see the external links section of this page.

What can I do if land contamination is affecting my house sale or purchase?

If contamination has been identified as a potential concern, then you could:

appoint an environmental consultant to investigate – go to www.ends.co.uk for a list of consultants
get the appropriate environmental insurance
request any available land contamination information from us by submitting an environmental information enquiry form

Developer guidance

Depending on what you are planning to build, we may need to complete a full contaminated land risk assessment.

Our guidance leaflet for developers provides further guidance on what an appropriate assessment is and how land contamination is addressed through the development control planning process.

The contaminated land questionnaire contains more guidance on when this document is appropriate for addressing land contamination risks at your development.