One element of housing delivery not covered by the updated National Planning Policy Framework but expected to be part of the government’s agenda in the year ahead is new towns. Whether a new settlement or urban extension – both are envisaged – the scale of these communities would help address the national housing crisis in a significant way.
Delivering on these plans won’t be quick or easy. Creating healthy and sustainable communities with quality and design ambitions is clearly challenging. Our world is also very different from the post-war new towns programme and has to reflect the need for greater diversity, density and sustainability.
But the opportunity to create large-scale, high-quality schemes that would work alongside infill development and successful brownfield regeneration should be more attractive for the private and public sector alike.
Hold tight
From a local authority perspective, the challenges are complex, but there are positive examples from around the country. Bringing together the parties – and funding – to deliver for their current and future residents is essential. Working in partnership with the private sector in setting and holding on tightly to the original aspirations and vision will help ensure these new places can come forward effectively.
At a practical level, policy needs to be appropriate in detail and incorporate flexibility, as many issues will change throughout the lengthy delivery timescale. This needs to be supported by well-trained and confident development management officers, and a robust framework for s106 contributions should ensure delivery of essential on-site infrastructure. Proactive leadership can also deliver strategic off-site linkages and bring other public sector organisations to project.
This partnership between the public and private sector also requires a commercial approach where developer and housebuilder abilities and constraints are recognised. Good masterplanning, including phasing and delivery consideration from the outset, can help unlock these issues.
For example, housebuilders are unlikely to bring forward medium- to high-density parcels early, especially on untested greenfield sites. Equally, commercial uses within the town centre will not happen until a substantial community has been established. But starting with parcels near existing public transport connections or areas of lower density are a much more viable proposition, as are local centres and/or meanwhile uses.
At the same time, there is an opportunity for developers to step forward with up-to-date house and flat types that deliver medium density and urban forms, because every new town in the country will require this as part of a wider mix.
Technical assessments and option evaluations must be robust to meet plan-making legislation and provide confidence. However, a lot of detail will remain unknown in the early years and, from a masterplanning perspective, a balance is needed between fixed requirements around flood zones, environmental legislation etc, and agreeing on mandatory development principles to guide the future. This is one way of continuing to develop the place in the face of the unknown.
Setting strategic design principles around sustainability, health and wellbeing and embedding them in town or phase-wide strategies, as well as producing bespoke, practical design codes appropriate in detail and flexibility can ensure quality of place throughout the design and support the delivery process.
Balancing the level of detail and perceived certainty at each stage in the planning and development process is critical to ensure flexibility for the future.
Wide red lines
So it is important to draw a much wider red line – the “area of search” or “broad development location”. Its extent can be refined as plans move forward but having to reconsult or revise the original evidence base, because the line was drawn too specifically at the outset is time-consuming and costly.
There may be a perception that communities are initially unlikely to be in favour of new towns, but in our experience issues can be minimised when people see they are well-planned, have high levels of environmental sustainability and will genuinely provide services and infrastructure for new residents and the wider community. In fact, this is more likely in developments with critical mass that requires delivery of new schools and health centres, compared with smaller schemes that sit below thresholds for new amenities and receive similar local opposition.
These ambitious new communities must overcome more challenges than those with less aspiration and a business-as-usual approach. However, providing future residents with a choice to live healthier, more sustainable, more socially cohesive lives, is still very achievable – especially when these important considerations become the starting point for the masterplanning and delivery process.
Katja Stille is a director at Tibbalds
