In 2004, Landsec punted £15.2m, buying 1,700 acres of medieval deer park eight miles east of Stansted Airport, complete with a World War II airstrip. Last week, a set of guesses on which 12 locations will be identified by the New Towns Taskforce in July pointed to Easton Park. One of just 17 spots which tick all six boxes civil servants are sure to be checking, to give cover to politicians defending the lucky dozen. Sure? Yes, because the WPI report’s authors, Paul Chamberlain and David Morris, are former senior civil servants.
Last week, Landsec lodged a reserved matters application for 1,200 homes and teased on LinkedIn that it was looking for “the right partnership” to develop the site, which has room for 10,000 homes. By “right partnership” it means somebody else doing the building work which, it points out, could start “within this parliament”. Today the land is valued at £25.2m – just under £15,000 an acre. What might the park be worth if nominated as a new town? Well, that depends.
Will government stick with the task force’s “high-density” mantra? The higher the density the higher the land value. What’s not to like? This: the lordly condescension of the “density is good crowd”. Those living NW1 lives fondly imagining singletons cycling to Waitrose to fetch organic lemons home in a pannier basket. Ebenezer Howard’s iconic “people at the centre” design guide for new towns, such as Letchworth, is patronised and dismissed. “My dear, so yesterday. We know what’s good for people.”
Those untainted by planning dogma know their “people”. Wellcome Trust-controlled Urban & Civic call them customers. It is acting as master developer on 11 sites with consents for 38,000 homes. It market researches the hell out of potential customers at places such as Alconbury. Guess what they want? Low-density, low-rise homes in tree-lined avenues, complete with space to park the Vauxhall Mokka after the big shop at Tesco. Bicycles are for kids.
Rant over. After all, the main job of the task force is to provide a list. Its “where and why” job is presumably done. The job of ministers is to demonstrate grippage rather than slippage on the “how, who and when”. How far have the money and power issues that will shape and value on every chosen site been developed? Does yet more consultation loom? A clue of serious intent, or otherwise, will come when the monies allocated to new town development is revealed in the upcoming spending review.
Landsec says it is not too bothered if Easton Park becomes one of the lucky dozen. Maybe not. Thanks to Labour, the anti-development tide has turned. Britain’s bellwether propco already has permission for 1,200 homes on land enough for 10,000, valued at agricultural land prices. But Easton Park remains “non-core”, slated for possible sale. Boss Mark Allan wants to sell, out-of-town resi takes far too long. Just not for a few weeks. Being listed as a new town might put up the price, despite all the unanswered questions.
Peter Bill is a former editor of Estates Gazette
