Just redevelop the site! Affordable housing?
Hmmm....it was on a 150 lease, airfield use only, starting
around 10 years ago and then passed on by Mike Collett at a considerable profit; if that lease is still in force,
if, it's not quite so easy as that.
Also, a large part of the central area is the site of a 19th century sewage farm; and that's not the slightly more recent sewage disposal area on the south side. (Not a lot of people know that.)
Lot of contamination there; to say nothing of decades of pollution from oils and chemicals, possibly RA materials in small quantities, in various places.
All in all it's not a developer's first choice for housing. Especially now, with land banks dwindling in value.