Building back greener: are garden communities part of the answer?

As the nation unlocks and the economy starts to recover, we are looking at the changing attitudes and demands affecting the development industry. Based on our experience of promoting garden communities, this article explores the opportunities they offer, but also highlights some of the key points to be considered in achieving sustainable development at scale in this way.

Changing demands

The COVID-19 lockdown and associated social distancing measures are changing people's attitudes to what they want from their homes. Working from home for sustained periods together with educating children; exercising and socialising in the same place, has been a challenge for many, and some of these new ways of living and working look as though they are here to stay.

Never has the size of your home, the local facilities, your equipment and access to green space been so important. People also want to be closer to work, schools and local facilities so that they can walk or cycle, rather than take public transport. The closure of gyms and other indoor recreational facilities has brought an increased appreciation for the natural environment. Work is now less dependent on commuting to a town or a city, and we are now in the real era of agile working.

Garden communities, bringing together the benefits of town and country living, can satisfy these new demands, while seeking to deliver housing at scale.

Up the garden path

However, planning for garden communities is not straightforward. Government support for garden communities was asserted by the garden communities programme, introduced in 2014, but, as Lichfields' December 2019 report on the programme noted, only a third of these garden communities had planning permission or an adopted local plan allocation at the end of last year. A further third were reported as being supported in emerging policy, but the final third were without any formal planning status at all.

The Garden Communities Programme

The programme seeks to achieve locally led large-scale new developments that create well-planned sustainable places for people to live. It builds on a philosophy derived from Ebenezer Howard's "Garden Cities of Tomorrow" (1902). Mr Howard was writing against the backdrop of a recently industrialised Britain and the mass migration of people from the countryside to the cities. Presenting what he saw as the competing "pulls" of town and country, he advocated a third way: a "Garden City" that would balance these polar opposites by combining the environmental benefits of the countryside with the socio-economic benefits of the town.

So how does the programme work? It invites proposals for new garden communities to access funding and practical help from central government. By December 2019, 49 projects across England had been included, which are set to provide 403,000 homes; up to 182 new primary schools and 56 secondary schools; and 600 hectares of employment land. Lichfields' estimate was that by the 2030s the programme could deliver 16,000 new homes a year.

Planning principles

The Government's prospectus is careful not to prescribe a template for the garden community nor seek to impose a particular set of development principles on a local area. This could be both a blessing and a curse for the promoter.

Help is found in the "Garden City Principles" (developed by Howard in 1899), which are cited as one way of achieving the Government's objectives. The principles are published by the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) as follows:

These principles closely correlate with the "qualities" the Government is looking for when granting funding and support via the programme.

Where garden communities are being allocated in emerging local plans, we are finding that very often the TCPA's Garden Community Principles are referenced in policy or supporting text.

Our recent experience

The principles place at their heart: (1) enhancement of the natural environment; (2) green infrastructure; (3) net biodiversity gain; (4) low-carbon fabric; (5) technology; and (6) self-sufficiency. Where these principles are successfully transposed into planning policy, the resulting new settlements offer a real opportunity to hardwire greener, low-carbon credentials into developments alongside infrastructure for electric vehicles and other innovations without undue adverse impact on existing communities and settlements.
This is exactly what we have seen working with Grosvenor on the Oxfordshire Garden Village. The planning application submitted in July 2020 seeks outline permission for 2,200 homes and 57,000sqm employment floorspace. What makes it stand out is the generous and high-quality green infrastructure which pervades the scheme and the commitment to achieving zero carbon targets as far as possible. The scheme is zero gas; proposes a smart energy hub and electric vehicle-charging; achieves a net biodiversity gain; and outperforms current building standards. As cities increasingly densify, these sorts of high-quality and well-connected and sustainable new settlements -where Garden City Principles genuinely inform design - offer a real opportunity to meet housing need at scale, especially in a post-coronavirus world where the magnetic pull of the city may have weakened.

"build better", "build greener", "build faster"

The Prime Minister has made his intentions clear, so, if garden communities fit this remit and there is already a programme in place, what's the catch? Securing planning for large-scale new settlements is often challenging and recent Planning Inspectorate decisions underline the problems faced by authorities and promoters in successfully allocating such projects in a local plan.

At North Essex, in May 2020, the Inspector concluded that two of the three proposed garden communities should be deleted in order for the plan to proceed. Separately, on 30 April 2020, Uttlesford District Council withdrew its local plan after the Inspector found multiple problems with its preparation (including with its three garden community proposals) and, on the same day, Hart District Council adopted its plan but only after removing the Shapley Heath Garden Community on the Inspector's recommendation. Although the examination of each of the three plans turned on specific facts, an issue common to all three was deliverability. More recently, St Albans City and District Council announced its intention to remove the Park Street Garden Village from its local plan as a means of securing early adoption and avoiding being in breach of its duty to cooperate with neighbouring authorities.

It is clear that the ability of garden communities to meaningfully contribute to the building back "better, greener and faster" is restrained by the multitude of checks and balances needed to prove deliverability and viability. There is also an emerging debate about who should take responsibility for overseeing the delivery of garden communities. Local authorities appear to be showing increased interest and see well-planned sustainable, viable garden communities as an effective tool for meeting housing needs. They appear to be willing to be more proactive and interventionist by offering to assist with land assembly and helping to close gaps in infrastructure funding. This is often in return for greater control of biodiversity, carbon targets, housing mix, specific affordable housing targets, timing for delivery of key social and community facilities and the imposition of measures to limit or capture any enhancement in land values. The lines are blurring and there is a risk that developers will be disincentivised to commit to the cost of promoting garden communities without greater clarity about the rules of engagement.

Perhaps the imminent planning white paper will help? The "Planning for the Future" paper from March 2020 promised a series of "common sense planning reforms" to support housing delivery and "more beautiful and greener communities". Proposed changes to the local plan system to create more certainty for promoters will also be welcome. The Government's commitment to "infrastructure first" will be another important part of unlocking development and improving deliverability.

Green growth

So, yes, garden communities 'could' be part of the answer to providing the homes that the country needs, but more is needed to reduce planning risk and complexity and improve certainty and clarity.

These developments offer a fantastic opportunity to drive well-designed, low-carbon development forwards, and the scale and comprehensive nature of the projects mean that there is more opportunity to be creative and hardwire this innovation into scheme design.

With dramatic planning reform promised, cross-party support for new homes and a change in demand from homeowners, this could be the perfect time for garden communities to flourish.