Selling a field but leaving a legacy

Ear-marking a patch of land for development can be unpopular locally – unless you adopt the Government’s ‘better and beautiful’ ethos, suggests Rupert Bates

IF you chiselled two mighty research tomes by Knight Frank into stone lions, they could roar from the portico of the most stately of country houses. Responding to the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission set up by the Government, Knight Frank’s first report, Cost and Value, seeks ‘to identify whether there is added value where schemes are developed with quality as an explicit aim compared with mainstream housebuilder-led schemes’.

Hardly a ringing endorsement of housebuilders, although some of the volume players’ least-impressive work over the years has facades only a mother could love.

With a selection of case studies, Knight Frank highlights that high-quality housing should not erode returns; can deliver a value premium and that sustainable schemes provide additional value beyond housing.

It is about landowners, driven by legacy and local community benefits, driving better place-making and more affordable housing.

One such legacy development is Park View in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, owned by the Blenheim Palace Estate (BPE). “An example of a landowner whose interests are so inextricably linked to those of the local community that it has decided not only to deliver high-quality homes, but also offer discounted affordable homes and has volunteered ‘principles of legacy’ that could define a kitemark of stewardship,” says Charlie Dugdale of Knight Frank.

BPE acquired local developer Pye Homes, further controlling that legacy, as well as consistency of vernacular design and materials and employing local labour. The estate contributes more than £100m annually to the Woodstock economy, supporting 2,000 jobs. The hope is that such long-term stewardship and investment will be rewarded in planning consents and reduced local opposition.

The second Knight Frank report, Building in Beauty, takes a fictional farming family with a potential development site on a 10-year journey to delivering 1,000 homes on its land, digging deep into planning, viability, partnerships, infrastructure funding and tax.

Dan Browne of the very real Grace Homes, based in Northamptonshire and building in the Oxford-cambridge Arc, says rural landowners do indeed hold the key. “Quite often, landowners live in a village or small town and may have a piece of land they have earmarked for sale but don’t want it on their record that they created a development that local people think is an eyesore and adds nothing to the aesthetics of the community,” says Browne.

“They want to create a legacy for their town or village but have delayed selling because they are fearful that what will be created won’t be in keeping. We are not going to spoil your town or village. We will build well and our new homes will be in keeping with the rest of the community.”