The delivery of the next generation of New Towns is an integral part of the Government’s emerging strategy to increase housing supply. Creating successful and vibrant new places requires the provision of high-quality homes alongside essential amenities and infrastructure. Too often, recent attempts have focused on the former, neglecting the latter.

Drawing from our experience working across multiple new settlement masterplans, including Sibson Garden Community, Tendring-Colchester Borders and Future Cambourne, we set out to present an overview of the common pitfalls associated with centres in new settlements, before exploring alternative ways of supporting a vibrant mix of uses.

Our research has also been informed by our extensive work on high density brownfield regeneration schemes, such as the Green Quarter (Southall) and the Treaty Centre (Hounslow), where the provision on non residential services needs to respond to a specific demographic context in an age where retail facilities can no longer be considered the bedrock of local high streets.

We identified a lack of cohesive spatial strategies in the development of recently delivered and forthcoming new towns, resulting in new settlements that are isolated and devoid of local character. Insufficient densities make it difficult for thriving and vibrant local centres to take shape, leaving many residents with no access to essential amenities and social infrastructure.

Our alternative approach is rooted in a deep understanding of the local culture and economy. This requires a strategic vision for the future role of any new development and its relationship to existing settlements, informed by a robust analysis of the history, demography and needs of existing communities. We propose a value-led commercial approach to phasing, ensuring that initial phases of housing are balanced with a commensurate and proportionate delivery of social infrastructure and amenities.

Increasing density and the mix of tenures around the local centre and access to public transport is crucial to sustaining new amenities and non-residential services. Careful masterplanning and intricate phasing strategies will allow new towns to emulate the organic evolution of successful places. Meanwhile the development of mixed use typologies of flexible sizes and uses will generate resilience across the entire build cycle of new settlements, particularly in times of economic uncertainty.

Many organisations that deliver new homes excel in housing products, but often lack experience in creating vibrant, mixed-use communities. Our experience as practitioners working across multiple disciplines including strategic planning, suburban masterplanning, high-streets and mixed-use developments has enabled us to support our clients and collaborators in piecing together cohesive spatial strategies for proposed new settlements, focused on vibrancy and value.

Read the full report here.