A supportive system
In the current UK planning system, the planning application process for large development sites is complex, strenuous, and expensive. The cost and time dimensions add risk and uncertainty, which make patient developments prohibitive for many smaller players and landowners with stewardship ambitions. The most straightforward route in the greenfiel d marketplace is to build to sell to generate a quick return on investment, cover planning fees and upfront costs.
To maximise profits, sites are often developed beyond their limits which compromises on place quality and provision of amenities, such as green space and children’s play areas. The crux of this reality is that the focus often falls on how to navigate the planning process in the cheapest and quickest way, and not on how to build resilient and convivial places.
To rectify this, the cost of development could be redistributed between the public and private sector to remove some of the adverse dimensions from the planning process, including the duplication of costly site assessments, such as the environmental appraisals and transport modelling that developers undertake on a repetitive basis. Often, there is an overlap between sites, and there is a case for streamlining these processes with the local authority as the responsible and coordinating entity.
Gail Mayhew argues that if landowners are to commit to a more complex and long-term development process, the public sector needs to be more supportive. It is evident that the patient approach captures more value for land interests, but it has also demonstrated added value for surrounding communities by delivering precious receipts back into the local business economy alongside other benefits such as new employment opportunities and affordable homes.
One way for local authorities to offer support is to contribute the land and split the risk with the developer, with a share of the profit. In this model, the local authority would be involved throughout the process, and help ensure a much smoother journey. Gail refers to the need for public sector bodies to adopt stewardship principles and standards in the management of public land to deliver on the housing agenda, levelling-up and placemaking.
To encourage a greater degree of public/private collaboration and understanding, Gail co-founded the Kitemark Initiative together with Ben Bolgar and Charles Dugdale, to de-risk the process and remove some of the strains between local authorities and landowner developers that are committed long-term. It is inherent to stewardship schemes to deliver on essential infrastructure, community facilities and other key placemaking attributes, because that creates place value, which in the long run translates into financial value.
Therefore, these schemes naturally have a greater alignment of interests with local authority aspirations, which should reassure both planners and community of the schemes’ intention to deliver exemplar places that prioritise the public good.
At the core of the Kitemark Initiative are three gateways to incentivise a patient stewardship approach to development:
"If you are a long-term landowner developing your land, and really care about how the place evolves, you are more inclined to invest in attributes and components that might cost a bit more because you can make the place better, and people are happier to live there."
Gail Mayhew, Director at Smart Growth Associates