Councils in England are being invited to set up development corporations to deliver community-led new towns, with borrowing powers that could make the model more attractive than previous government new town initiatives.
Housing minister Dominic Raab has announced changes to the New Towns Act that would see local authorities leading new town developments that will be accountable to their local communities, rather than government ministers.
The proposed New Town Development Corporations will be given a broader remit, including long-term stewardship of assets, seen as crucial for planning and investment in non-commercial infrastructure and reducing reliance on private house builders for place-making and community facilities.
Key changes have been made to the draft proposals that were consulted on in the new year, including community consultation and representation on development corporation boards and the stewardship considerations.
The draft had also proposed that corporations would have to seek Treasury approval to borrow more than £100m, a figure dismissed as arbitrary and insufficient by local authorities and planning specialists.
Under the confirmed regulations, this limit has been removed. Instead the Treasury will consider borrowing requests on a case-by-case basis within an overall programme cap of £4.6 billion.
Tom Holbrook, director of architects and masterplanners 5th Studio, welcomes the revisions which he believes will be more attractive to local authorities than previous new town announcements that never really progressed.
‘The devolved powers are more in the spirit of the original 1946 New Towns Act. Long term stewardship of local assets also goes back to the 1946 Act and is important because it allows local authorities to plan for infrastructure and transport at the beginning of the process, rather than as something that will hopefully be added later,’ says Holbrook.
‘More recent new towns feel underinvested, because the new towns did not have the powers to finish the job and to use their land assets to build value, which is critical.’
5th Studio were appointed by the National Infrastructure Commission to make recommendations on the built environment of the Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge Corridor. Holbrook says one of the key challenges is going beyond dormitory settlements provided by private house builders to deliver mixed development and local economic drivers.
Government ministers have been setting out their ambitions for a new generation of new towns for more than a decade. Gordon Brown announced his commitment to ten new ‘eco towns’ in 2007, followed by David Cameron’s vision of a wave of new ‘garden cities’ four years later. Neither programme progressed as originally intended and to date arguably only new settlements at Cambourne and Northstowe, both in Cambridgeshire, resulted from these initiatives.
This time around already one candidate has declared its intention of applying to the government to be given the go-ahead. The North Essex Garden Communities (NEGC) – a partnership of Essex County Council, Colchester, Braintree and Tendring councils – has plans for 43,000 new homes across three settlement areas. According to the NEGC, the changes to last year’s draft new towns regulations are what they were looking for from ministers.
Final regulations are expected to be published before Parliament’s summer recess, after which councils will be able to seek approval to establish a New Town Development Corporation. The corporations will be led by council and community representatives and co-opted experts, who will be responsible for masterplanning, infrastructure investment, attracting private investment and delivery.
Thanks to Tom Holbrook, Director, 5th Studio.
Text by Neal Morris. This is a Professional Feature edited by the RIBA Practice team. Send us your feedback and ideas
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Posted on 21 June 2018.
