|
TRANSFERABLE LESSONS FROM THE NEW TOWNS
I am writing following your letter to the Chair of the TCPA dated 26th November 2007 inviting further comment from the TCPA on the CLG report "Transferable Lessons from the New Towns" and the Government's Memorandum to the Committee on this matter. I apologise for the delay but your letter did not reach as soon as intended.
The TCPA is pleased that the Government partly commissioned the TCPA study "Best practice in Urban Extensions and New Settlements" and believes this provides useful advice on the lessons to be drawn from the case studies contained therein. The case studies are recent new settlements (South Woodham Ferrers, Essex and Dickens Heath Solihull for example) and urban extensions such as at Northampton. The research paper produced by the Institute for Public Policy Research was also helpful. However, neither of these evaluated the postwar new towns as recommended by the Select Committee.
The Department commissioned a first stage Literature Review from Oxford Brookes University which the TCPA welcomes as an important contribution to the debate. However the substantive research recommended by the Committee - a proper evaluation of the New Towns programme - has still not been carried out and the TCPA urges the Government to move to the next and more substantive stage of research on this matter.
In the report "Transferable Lessons from the New Towns" there are some findings which the TCPA would question and others where fuller research could prove immensely valuable to fulfilling the current ambitions to deliver more homes and new settlements in the form of Eco-towns. In addition a number of lessons clearly required action as stated in the report. Some of these are highlighted here and the following represent some of the key areas the TCPA believes proper research as originally envisaged by the Committee could clarify:
"1.1 NTDCs were exceptionally powerful delivery vehicles which dominated the entire development process, not just as 'lead developers'. Delivery on the scale comparable to that of the New Towns will involve creating agencies of similar potency, even though their actual form will probably differ. Key lesson requiring action"
The TCPA believes that the key attributes of the NTDCs which made them enormously successful in delivery terms appear in danger of being overlooked. The Government made clear in "Eco-towns Living a Greener Future" (CLG, April 2008) that "A new town development corporation, established under the New Towns Act 1981, could be an appropriate delivery option" for delivery today and thus the need to establish the key benefits of this kind of vehicle need to be understood as soon as possible. The current choice of vehicle by Government in Milton Keynes (the Urban Regeneration Area), the TCPA believes, is one step less accountable than an NTDC (the latter being directly accountable to the Secretary of State). The TCPA is also concerned that the importance of the long term and single purpose nature of the NTDCs has not been captured by any of the interventions more recently in terms of local delivery vehicles, these key lessons need to be further evidenced and disseminated.
"1.11 All necessary land for delivery should be acquired well in advance of anticipated development and ownerships consolidated as much as possible. Key lesson requiring action.
1.13 Where public land ownership is involved then the pattern of using additional value to underwrite other development may not differ significantly from what occurred in the New Towns. Care should however be taken to ensure that any returns to public agencies based on enhanced values are retained within the Growth Areas concerned. Key lesson requiring awareness.
1.15 Finance from central Government is likely to be critical in establishing the growth momentum in the early stages. Key lesson requiring action."
The acquisition of land remains key if public bodies are to share in the proceeds from development in any meaningful way. Therefore a strategy for modern land acquisition and criteria is needed and would be informed by substantive research on these points flagged up from the literature review. The Review published does not cover the important issues surrounding the fixing of land value at a point in time insulating acquiring / public bodies from the inflationary effects of the development process. This is a vital issue that needs to be considered properly both in evaluating the new towns experience and urgently in taking forward the Eco-towns programme.
"2.3 It is important to think ahead about different scenarios in the event of possible changes in the economic climate... The lack of flexibility in the financing of New Towns led to significant deficits, the scale of which could have been avoided. Key lesson requiring action."
The TCPA believes this lesson shows only a selective part of the picture and importantly fails to highlight that the overall debt of the Commission for New Towns was repaid with interest and in surplus ahead of time. While some NTDCs ran deficits the overall result of the programme in financial terms was positive for the public purse thanks in part to the enormous economic success of Milton Keynes. Ray Thomas reported in "The 1972 Housing Finance Act and the Demise of the New Town and Local Authority Housing Programmes" (Urban Law and Policy No 5 1982) that "Overall the 21 new towns for which reports were available made a profit of £671,000". The financial success of the new towns is also evidenced by the repayments from the Commission for New Towns early. These matters go unreported and a different impression is provided by this early literature review. The NTDCs were also significant in being loan funded by Government guaranteeing a return at a healthy margin, unlike the Urban Development Corporations of the 1980s which were grant funded and massively more burdensome on the public purse.
There is a real danger these issues will be lost sight of unless they are properly evaluated and placed before today's decision makers.
"4.1 Clarity of responsibilities for delivery and related governance in the Growth Areas will be essential, especially so since delivery partnerships will be far looser entities with more diffused power structures than those which characterised the New Towns programme. Key lesson requiring action"
This assumes the New Towns Act will not be used whereas "Eco-towns: Living a Greener Future" (ibid) assumes it may well be used. This again stresses the importance of single purpose and clearly accountable nature that NTDCs require if they are to work well. It is possible to have effective relationships between Development Corporations and Local Authorities as the "partnership" New Towns such as Peterborough evidenced without compromising the single purpose mission of an NTDC. The practice in Urban Development Corporations (UDCs) such as that currently operating in East London where different parts of the UDC are administered and planned by different public agencies is the antithesis of the intention of a development corporation. This finding clearly needs to be considered further.
"6.5 Working with existing topographical landscape creates places that can generate a sense of personal affiliation. The "New Town blues" were partly a product of low density (and hence compromised access), and anonymous or placeless aesthetics (as well as issues of community). It should, however, be acknowledged that psychological responses to places are not dependent merely on the physical setting, but are also the product of social;, community and economic factors and conditions. Key lesson requiring action."
This assertion of new town blues, the critique of density levels and the focus elsewhere on the need for higher densities are sweeping judgments on the New Town experience which are not clearly substantiated. Colin Ward in his 1993 "New Town Home Town" (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, London) reports objective studies that concluded that there are no low density new towns (page 15) and that New Towns, according to medical research, lead to improvements in health and well being (page 13). (Feelings of anxiety were identified in studies of residents in new developments, not a feature related particularly to New Towns). These points need further consideration and the TCPA believes the mix of residential densities, displayed by many New Towns provides a highly sustainable way of life.
The TCPA also believes that the specific issues of New Towns today reaching the need for a level of infrastructure investment which goes beyond that in existing towns also merits further attention.
I hope this is of interest and look forward to hearing whether the substantive stage of the research recommended by the Committee will be progressed.
|