Comment

Is there still a place for strategic scale place making?

The continuing role of new communities in the wider growth agenda.

As part of the ‘Build, Build, Build’ initiative, Boris Johnson has announced what the Government describes as ‘the most radical reforms to our planning system since the Second World War, making it easier to build better homes where people want to live’. These new regulations are likely to come into force in September and will provide greater freedom to change the use of land and create new homes from vacant and redundant buildings without planning permission.

These are laudable aims and will no doubt make some contribution to increasing housing supply, mostly in existing urban areas. However the scale of the task ahead to make good the chronic national housing shortfall - combined with the need for the housing sector to help stimulate the economy in the wake of the current national crisis - calls for a more concerted effort from both the public and private sectors to deliver at scale, in both quantity and quality.

The Government will also shortly launch its planning Policy Paper setting out plans for a ‘comprehensive reform of England’s seven-decade old planning system’, which we are advised will introduce a new approach that ‘works better for our modern economy and society’. This implies potentially further degrees of liberalism in the planning system, but also presents an opportunity to recreate the climate of large scale strategic construction last seen in the aftermath of the war with the New Town Programme of the 1940s and 50s.

New communities were the backbone of the post-war reconstruction programme and as vehicles for strategic housing delivery they are as equally relevant today. Whilst not a panacea for all strategic housing delivery, larger scale new communities retain a critical role as part of a wider, full spectrum, reconstructive growth agenda for the 2020s and beyond. In short, they provide the opportunity for a long term step change in sustained delivery and opportunities for high quality contemporary healthy and resilient place making, including access to public and private green space and to local shops and services. These are attributes which are inherent in Garden Village principles and which arguably are now more relevant than ever.

New communities of sufficient scale provide the critical mass to be self-sustaining, thereby supporting the transition to a net zero economy. In this regard, the correct strategic location also remains critically important, so as to align the delivery of new housing with the planning of other key strategic infrastructure. New communities also enhance the ability for long-term sustained delivery of homes for all sectors of the community and can help stimulate the local and regional economy. This has been increasingly recognised by a number of local planning authorities, notably in areas such Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Essex, who have either attempted to bring forward large new communities or are actively planning to do so.

However, these attempts have been met with mixed fortunes of late and there have been both successes and failures. For example, in Cambridgeshire a number of large new communities have been successfully brought forward at Alconbury, Northstowe and Cambourne, with further new communities in the planning pipeline in areas such as at Waterbeach and Bourn. Similarly, in 2018 land was released from the East Hertfordshire Green Belt for a major new Garden Community at Gilston, which is now part of the adopted Development Plan. 

More recently however, there have also been some high profile plan failures which calls into question whether larger scale new communities still have a strategic role, in contrast to the tried and tested urban extension model. This is however not the case, as analysis of the reasons why some new Garden Community proposals have recently stalled reveals site specific issues which are not necessarily applicable in every case.

For example in Uttlesford District, the Inspectors were primarily concerned with the proposed new communities on the grounds of heritage impacts and transport accessibility, causing the emerging plan to be withdrawn. Whilst in Braintree District the Inspector’s main cause of concern for the new communities in the A120 corridor was infrastructure provision and viability. Similarly in St Albans, the council’s proposal at Park Street Garden Village was rejected on the grounds of a lack of any substantive evidence on deliverability.

So is there still a place for strategic scale place-making?

The answer is reassuringly yes, but clearly there are key lessons to be learned and the notion that a new settlement can be simply sold as the golden ticket in the spatial strategy no longer holds true. There are also questions as to what is the most appropriate mechanism for allocating sites of this scale. Is the local plan process still the most appropriate vehicle or would the Development Consent Order regime provide a greater level of certainty and scrutiny? These are questions which should be given significant consideration as part of any comprehensive planning reform.

Going forward, the successful promotion of larger scale new communities through the local plan process will require demonstrable evidence of long term deliverability and viability. This depends partly on achieving successful partnerships with key public and other stakeholders at an early stage in the promotion process and, importantly, having a robust and credible evidence base.

The relationship of the new community with the wider spatial strategy and the support that it provides to the overall plan is also critical. In short, where there is an over-dependence on early delivery from a large, single growth source it will simply be fair game for smaller omission site promoters at the examination stage.

The correct approach requires all these key elements to be in place with a clear synergy between the evolution of the spatial strategy and the promoted new community. It is important that it is not just seen as a lone driver of major growth, but as a strategic place-making initiative that is the interface between multiple strategies and plan periods. Above all, the promoted new community should continue to emphasise what it can do best and project an unassailable vision of health, resilience and sustainability, with quality in both townscape and landscape.

We have considerable experience in the promotion of new communities at all scales and locations throughout the UK. We offer a comprehensive suite of relevant professional services including; Planning, Design, Sustainability, Economics and Development Viability. If you are considering a new community proposal or would like to know more, please feel free to get in touch.

7 July 2020