Planning for 21st Century HAPPI New Towns

Within the first 100 days of office, the Labour government has focused much of their efforts on addressing the complex housing landscape, including updating the National Planning Policy Framework (opens new window), the formation of a National New Town Taskforce (opens new window) and the prioritisation of development on brownfield and low-quality green belt land – classified as ‘grey belt’. - So, what will the 21st century evolution of New Towns include, and does HAPPI have a role to play.

The Lessons of experience

We have a lot to learn from the proud UK legacy of new settlements, including through planning for an ageing population.

Through the 18th and 19th centuries, UK industrialists including; Robert Owen at New Lanark (opens new window), and Titus Salt at Saltaire (opens new window) introduced free healthcare, nursery places, education and alms-houses, for their workers. Better living conditions resulted both in improved productivity, and increased life expectancy by up to 50%. Today both are recognised by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites.

Ebenezeer Howard’s early 20th century ‘Garden City’ experiment at Letchworth (opens new window) brought together social reformers and philanthropists to achieve a vision of a better future for ordinary people. Garden City Principles (opens new window) remain relevant today, promoting inclusivity, vibrancy, accessibility, and equity in placemaking.

However, in post-war years that followed, many public-sector-led New Towns focused more on ease of transport, zoning, and delivering homes for young families, often offering little for older residents. A familiar feature in many of these towns today are retrofit extra-care developments on the edge of town, delivered to cater for their now ageing populations.

The Ebbsfleet, Healthy New Town approach

Ebbsfleet Development Corporation (opens new window) was set up by government in 2015, to help facilitate the delivery of up to 15,000 new homes and many thousands of jobs across a series of brownfield quarries in Kent. Once established, the Corporation took on pre-existing planning approvals for 11,000 homes none of which included specialised housing for older residents or requirements for accessible and adaptable homes.

Collaboration

Ebbsfleet was designated the largest of the 10 Healthy New Town (opens new window) pilot sites by NHS England in 2016, collaborating with Kent County Council and the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board. This programme explored how investment in the built environment, rethinking service delivery and supporting community empowerment can help facilitate places where residents can age well in pace and live longer in good health.

Demand

Together we have identified the need for specialist housing; commissioning the Housing LIN to use their SHOP Model to identify the future demand for specialist housing opportunities. The results identified significant opportunities for ‘HAPPI’-rightsizing homes, and the work has been integrated into the Dartford and Ebbsfleet Housing Needs Assessment (opens new window).

Supply

We continue to champion and raise the profile of opportunities for specialist housing developers to deliver in Ebbsfleet, hosting a series of Specialist Developers Forum, and offering tours of the emerging neighbourhoods, highlighting opportunity sites.

What

Reflecting need, we have developed the concept of Intergenerational Housing as a model aiming to integrate mainstream and specialist housing together to foster opportunities for cross-generational support. We have also used our influencing role as planning authority for the development area to maximise the number of accessible and adaptable homes.

Image: A model concept for Intergenerational Housing commissioned by Ebbsfleet Healthy New Town.

Where

We are exploring opportunities on our own sites to bring forward innovation, including through the proposed Health and Wellbeing Hub in Ebbsfleet Central, where we worked once again with the HousingLin, to demonstrate the additionality of integrating health housing and social care.

Progress

Today 30% of the homes are complete across garden city, and less than 2% of residents are older. However, we are beginning to see initial examples of older residents following their families to Ebbsfleet. It is early days; however, we feel we have strong foundations for a HAPPI and HEALTHY (opens new window) Ebbsfleet where 86% of residents (opens new window) have said they believe there is a strong sense of community. (opens new window)

Join Kevin McGeough (Head of Strategy and Placemaking at Ebbsfleet) and others in our upcoming HAPPI Hour webinar on Healthy Ageing, HAPPI Homes and Happy Cities. Taking place on Tuesday 22nd October 2024 from 4pm - 5pm, Kevin will discuss the Healthy New Town initiative and whether it can serve as a model for the government's New Town programme.