Ebenezer Howard was a visionary in the development of town planning with his 20th century penchant for ‘Garden Cities;’ from that grew, perhaps in a distorted way, the British New Town movement. That has now run its course, but Charlie argues that as we are not meeting, and cannot hope to meet, our housing needs by ‘conventional’ means, it is time to re-visit and reinvent the Garden City as a socially-acceptable form for extensive development. Such thinking now appears to have a fair political wind.
Despite
his missionary tendency, Charlie is clearly pragmatic about how the trick might
be brought off in a world of planning authorities and ‘NIMBYs’. Your Scribe
drew out seven principles from what he said.
First
of all, any proposal must start from a financial framework, not a planning one.
The resulting ‘City’ must, of course, manifest town planning of the highest
order, but financial imperatives must rule, not planning visions. This led to
an uncomfortable truth that successful projects are likely to lie in the NIMBY-rich
South-East, not the more welcoming, but cash-strapped North. The financial
framework will require sophisticated engineering, realistically apportioning
risk to the needs of those providing the various tranches of finance. Early
risk would probably have to lie with the public sector, later risk with the
private sector.
Secondly,
the proposal must secure cross-party support so that its delivery is
politically secure over an extended period; the New Towns showed that this can
be achieved. It would also be necessary to secure local business and private
support; although nimbies are vocal, they are not always the majority.
Thirdly,
the delivery ‘authority’ must be given the powers to deliver, without being
subjected to whinging pressure groups; once the political decision is taken to
build, it is built. This was, of course, the great strength of the New Town
Development Corporations.
Fourthly,
the delivery authority must not be politically-driven, but project-driven.
Fifthly,
the financial structure of the project must be such that much of the land value
created is captured and re-cycled to enhance the development and subsequent
management of the City. No doubt this will require a small modicum of
profit-sharing with landowners, but the principle of value-capture is
important.
Sixthly,
the planning and design must deliver not only excellence, but also variety in
tenure, variety in price, and variety in size and quality; this principle of
variety should apply to the commercial as well as the residential elements.
Seventhly,
the development framework needs to provide for long-term ‘community
management’, particularly, but not exclusively of extensive ‘communal areas,’
areas that are indeed managed, via trustees, by the community with secure
ongoing funding. (Did I hear praise for Milton Keynes
in this?)
Despite
this clear vision, Charlie was well aware of the difficulties. Providing the
central drive runs counter to ‘localism’. Political and planning lobbies are
strong; if a local authority takes an initiative, will it be willing to let go?
The UK
My
father warned me against men with visions – but he hadn’t met the persuasive Charlie.
Michael
Mallinson
Post
script
The
government will be inviting proposals for the development of new Garden Cities
from July this year. The publication ‘creating garden cities and suburbs today’
can be found on www.tcpa.org.