A report has identified more than 50 brownfield sites for possible housing development in the region.

Naturalists have long been urging greater use of urban brownfield sites because they are concerned that wildlife has been hit hard by green field development.

One of the problems for developers has been that many brownfield sites are legacies of the region's industrial past and have been heavily polluted from industrial practices such as mining, engineering and cokeworks.

But advances in technology mean that many sites can be reclaimed and the Government is calling for more brownfield development.

Now regional development agency One NorthEast has published a report on the issue, compiled by planning consultants Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners and based on consultations with 22 local authorities and 11 leading house builders.

The report, launched on Tyneside by Housing and Planning Minister Nick Raynsford last month, concluded that 16 per cent of the sites were available for immediate development and that only 16 per cent could not be used at all.

However, the report will not eradicate the need to build on greenfield sites altogether, according to Ronnie Baird, North-East regional chairman of the House Builders' Federation.

Jonathan Blackie, director of strategy and external affairs for One NorthEast, said the region must devise innovative schemes to ensure that more brownfield land was used.

Sites in the report include the vast Middlehaven and St Hilda's area of Middlesbrough, seen as suitable for homes, business and leisure projects; the former Westoe Colliery on South Tyneside, on which housing development is due to begin next year; and the old Winterton Hospital site at Sedgefield, County Durham, already snapped up by a housebuilder.