Act now to help change airfield brownfield definition

The urgency signalled by the new government to increase house-building means it’s now more important than ever to change the definition of airfields as ‘previously developed brownfield’ sites, according to the Strategic Airfield Network (SAN).

And there’s a deadline of 24 September to make comments to support the impetus to make the change in the National Planning Policy Framework.

“Twenty years ago, airfields were specifically ruled out as being ‘brownfield’, but this was omitted in error in a later policy document,” said the two organisers behind the SAN initiative, Louise Southern and Ann Bartaby in their latest newsletter.

“There are three main reasons to justify why airfields should not be regarded as brownfield,” continued SAN.

1. This was never intended
2. Since 2018 airfields have had very strong policy support in the NPPF
3. GA airfields now have greater recognition as critical aviation infrastructure and wide community value.

The link to comment on the NPPF is: https://consult.levellingup.gov.uk/planning/planning-reform

Go to question 20 (and there is an error – it refers to paragraph 124c but this should be 122c!).

“It is reasonable to agree to the principle that brownfield land should be developed first, but state that airfields are not ‘brownfield’ or ‘previously developed land’ and the NPPF should explicitly exclude airfields from the definition of ‘brownfield’,” said SAN.

Or, email: [email protected]

The deadline for comments is 24 September 2024.

New map to show UK airfields that have joined the Strategic Airfield Network. Image: SAN

Other points covered by the latest SAN newsletter include:

• More airfields joining the initiative and identifying as ‘Strategic’ – 118 in total
• A map, above. has been created to show the distribution of SAN within the UK (Click here to download a copy)
• Pooleys & UK VFR Flight Guide to highlight SAN airfields in 2025 editions
• Information on airfield safeguarding
• Airfield focus on Tibenham.

Click here to download the latest newsletter from the Strategic Airfield Network