Project
Places for All Ages - Delivering the Future Garden Village
Barratt Developments PLC
The prospect of large-scale freestanding new settlements – garden towns and villages – has seen renewed interest in recent years. But there has been uncertainty in some quarters as to whether they can be private sector-led. Barratt came to Lichfields asking us to investigate and produce a think piece which could be used to inform the debate on how planning and effective land value capture can support implementation of these complex and long term developments.
Working with a mutli-disciplinary team, Lichfields generated a concept for a deliverable garden village. We looked at the development trajectory, housing mix, identified needs for social and community infrastructure, and the economic development requirements. We then produced a strategic viability appraisal to show how the development would generate the necessary rates of return, based on different assumptions about delivery models and the long term revenue streams and scope for land value capture.
The document was designed and produced by Lichfields to fit with Barratt’s own brand identity. It forms a small part of the graphic design support which Lichfields provides to Barratt across reports, presentations and information graphics.
The Barratt ‘Places for All Ages’ document is a welcome contribution to the garden villages debate. It shows that private sector appetite and skills are there to deliver, if government puts in place the planning policy support and the right incentives to local authorities to plan for their local, medium term housing needs. Best of all, it makes it clear it is possible to create fantastic attractive village scale communities in which to live and work, significantly contributing to housing needs and economic growth.
Lord Matthew Taylor