Government cuts funding for making brownfield sites suitable for new homes

Drastic cuts to hit remediation work - the process of detoxifying soil, with plans to phase it out by 2017, MPs on environmental audit committee find

The government has drastically cut funds needed to encourage new building on "brownfield" sites, despite claiming that such sites would be key to solving the housing crisis.

Many sites that have previously held buildings or other developments need remediation - a process to remove potentially dangerous toxins from the soil - in order to be considered for new houses, of which the government plans to build hundreds of thousands a year to ease the pressure on the UK's over-stretched stock.