Long-term stewardship models will be critical for new towns

As with any large housing scheme, stewardship is expected to form a vital component of the government’s ambitious new towns programme, which aims to create tens of thousands of homes across England in the coming decades.

As developers and councils are tasked with selecting the most appropriate delivery vehicle for each development, there is a need to understand what long-term stewardship entails and how these considerations form a crucial part of placemaking before, during and after construction.

It is not simply the management and maintenance of physical assets, buildings and open spaces. Rather, stewardship is the creation and curation of places and spaces which bring people together to establish a community. That is what really creates the sense of place and belonging that humans need.

In the new towns’ context, therefore, it is important to consider how stewardship will be secured, maintained and, ultimately, be self-sustaining, including financially.

Development corporations have already been identified as one of the most appropriate models to deliver these large-scale, long-term projects. However, stewardship needs to last for the life of a development beyond the point when developers have finished. Where a development corporation is involved in a project, stewardship must continue after the corporation ceases to exist.

Consequently, there is growing recognition that stewardship proposals must be established early in the development process and should be separate to a development corporation. By doing this, any stewardship arrangements remain unaffected when the relevant development corporation is ultimately wound up once the development is complete, thereby allowing stewardship to continue in perpetuity.

Historically, local authorities have tended to adopt most community assets linked to housing development projects, including open spaces, roads, community facilities and any drainage infrastructure that was not maintained by the statutory sewerage undertaker. However, escalating financial pressures over the past 15 years have resulted in many councils being either unable or unwilling to take on these additional maintenance responsibilities.

Milton Keynes, which was in the third wave of the original new towns, provides one of the most successful examples of long-term stewardship in the new towns context in England. Milton Keynes Parks Trust was established as an independent charity to manage the green spaces in Milton Keynes.  The Parks Trust was endowed with substantial commercial assets that continue to generate income today to maintain the parks and green spaces that the Parks Trust manages.

The Parks Trust does take on new open spaces and associated buildings, but seeks commuted sums associated with this so no charges are levied on Milton Keynes residents, much like a local authority adoption arrangement. However, such a stewardship model is not easily replicable for the latest wave of new towns since few developments tend to come with or are able to afford to provide such a large initial endowment.

As a result, developers have increasingly relied on private management agents to manage and maintain newer developments. These have typically involved developers transferring land and community assets to management companies, which the Competition and Markets Authority have defined as embedded management companies. However, such arrangements have attracted considerable criticism over the years as some management companies have charged high administration fees and service charges, whilst providing little accountability or opportunity for residents to challenge failing standards.

More recently, there has been considerable momentum to move towards a stewardship model that is less commercially driven and reflects better the community’s interests.

It is increasingly apparent that managing apartment buildings and managing places and spaces are distinctly different endeavours that require different approaches. A recent report (50 pages / 655KB PDF) published by the House of Lords’ Built Environment Committee also found that “good design and stewardship reduce costs and increase value in the medium- to long-term”, while “speculative, low‑cost delivery ultimately only leads to failed communities and far higher remedial costs”.

Modern-day developments still require maintenance budgets and long-term investment planning but typically rely heavily on service charges paid by residents. By exploring and securing alternative income streams for stewardship bodies, this can help offset some of the maintenance costs and so help to maintain service charges at a modest level, while having additional funds left over to invest in new facilities and community activities.

There are many options for alternative income streams, including profit share from a wide variety of sources, including community data trusts and stores and community apps, public events companies, community microgrids and smartgrids, digital advertising and intelligent street furniture, kiosk concessions in public parkland and biodiversity net gain (BNG) credits.

Some income can also be derived from profit share through deals with local fibre network providers or EV charging networks. There’s also potential for developments to gain income through parking revenue from unadopted car parks or physical, outdoor advertising in public spaces.

Too often developers and local planning authorities overlook the need for community creation activities to help enable new residents to interact with one another from the earliest stages of development and provide a foundation for the sense of community that so many people seek. The use of temporary buildings and places can also be helpful to act as a catalyst for community activities.

By adopting an open-minded and more innovative approach to funding models, stewardship bodies can secure the necessary funds to continue investment in facilities like new destination play equipment and community activities like street parties, Christmas fairs and other community events that have historically been enjoyed in established communities and enabled them to thrive.  However, for this to happen developers, landowners and local authorities need to plan for stewardship early on from designing the development, at policy level, and as part of the application process so that opportunities for alternative income can be planned for, harnessed and have optimum effect.

Ideally, stewardship organisations should be independent bodies where residents have some decision-making powers that can influence outcomes and allow the local community to shape future priorities and standards. Engaging with existing community groups, including charitable bodies, local faith groups and voluntary organisations, early on in the process is also crucial.

Together they can help co-design and shape the community creation activities, get involved – and in some cases even become directors of the stewardship organisation – to help enliven a community and forge links between existing and new residents.

From a planning perspective, it is clear that stewardship can no longer be an afterthought and must be embedded in planning policy for this new wave of new towns. This remains challenging at a national level, but local planning authorities are encouraged to set out the expectations for stewardship in local plan policy and supplementary policy documents, which can then be imposed through section 106 planning obligations.

There’s also a need to balance flexibility and sufficient certainty for local planning authorities, while ensuring stewardship proposals are robust and sustainable. Development corporations involved in new town schemes should take appropriate steps to embed stewardship in their local plan policy and supplementary planning documents to ensure comprehensive stewardship is secured in multiple application scenarios or multiple ownership allocations.

The Town and Country Planning Association’s stewardship toolkit is an important resource for local authorities, developers and other partners engaged in projects to build new and renewed communities at scale. Further guidance on potential stewardship models, including strategies, structures, governance and expectations as regards stewardship standards, and best practice should be tested and drafted with experienced practitioners.

Stewardship for this next generation of new towns must be underpinned by clear and diverse governance, sustainable funding structures and community engagement if it is to work in the long term.

For a copy of Pinsent Masons’ full new towns recommendations report, please contact Isla Cross.