Register of polluted land

A private pollution register is to be set up to warn potential homeowners of problems - it will tell them if the land they are about to buy is contaminated or liable to subsidence. Backed by Ordnance Survey and the Midland Bank, the computer database lists the environmental history of a site over the past 150 years.

Estimates of contaminated land in Britain range from 70,000 to 200,000 hectares on as many as 100,000 sites.

A solicitor's search of local authority and land registry archives often reveal only scant details of the environmental history.