Our history

The EPF Nord-Pas de Calais was created in December 1990 by decree (décret en Conseil d'Etat).

Its creation was justified by the heavy industrial and urban reconversion crisis faced by the region as early as the 1970s.

Following the important decentralisation laws of 1982-1983, the Nord-Pas de Calais region and the state have provided considerable funding in the framework of the state-region planning contract (contrat de plan Etat-Region) in order to incite local communities to work on the reconversion of their industrial brownfields. While these funds have actually ensured the recycling of large industrial buildings and brownfields located in urban areas or deemed "interesting", other sites with heavier physical and environmental constraints found no taker. Some industrial and mining brownfields thus remained permanently "off-market". To address this situation, the elected officials of Nord-Pas de Calais requested the state to create an EPF in Nord-Pas de Calais.

The EPF Nord-Pas de Calais was created on a regional perimeter to implement a shared policy of the state and the region: the redevelopment of large industrial and mining sites left derelict after operations ceased.

In a first stage, the EPF carried out this mission, before widening its intervention scope from 1996 onwards with the collection of the special development tax. Since 1996, beyond its initial task of "site redevelopment", the EPF carries out a second activity as a land operator. As such, it helps local communities and intermunicipal structures to control their land resources and recycle their derelict spaces.

The Etablissement operates within the framework of a Pluriannual Intervention Programme (Programme Pluriannuel d'Intervention, PPI) which is implemented in yearly periods. The ongoing PPI (similar to a strategic plan) was approved by the EPF's Board of Governors on 4 December 2006 and covers the 2007-2013 period. It provides for the Etablissement's continued intervention, balanced over the regional territory, through contracts (conventions) signed with local communities. The EPF chose to prioritize the development of land offer for rental social housing and the recycling of derelict spaces and polluted sites.