{"id":514672,"date":"2025-03-06T10:30:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T10:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=514672"},"modified":"2025-03-06T09:56:20","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T09:56:20","slug":"ebbsfleet-garden-city-teachings-from-the-thames-gateway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/ebbsfleet-garden-city-teachings-from-the-thames-gateway-06-03-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Ebbsfleet Garden City: Teachings from the Thames Gateway"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the government set to announce details on a generation of new towns, CN visits the UK\u2019s only 21st-century \u2018garden city\u2019<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A former police station in north Kent is the best spot to contemplate the most successful new settlement the UK has delivered this century. From their converted office at the top of Castle Hill, those working at the development corporation overseeing Ebbsfleet Garden City have prime views of their handiwork.<\/p>\n

Tidy rows of Monopoly houses snake up and down between chalk cliffs, while tower cranes sprout liberally across the landscape, their bulky frames looking positively wimpish in the shadow of the Dartford Crossing. It\u2019s hard to believe that less than two decades ago, the area was nothing but abandoned cement works.<\/p>\n

More than 4,500 homes have been built in the 1,000-acre Ebbsfleet Valley since its HS1 high-speed rail station opened in 2007. Yet from grand ambitions of a 43,000-home \u2018Euro City\u2019 surrounding Ebbsfleet International in 1994, today\u2019s vision has been pared down to a much more modest 15,000 homes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s against this backdrop of dwindling ambition that Labour is setting out its plans for a generation of new towns, each with more than 10,000 homes, set in tree-lined streets and surrounded by green space. Detail on these new towns has so far been scant, although a taskforce is due to suggest sites this summer. In the meantime, contractors can look to Ebbsfleet for clues on how they might progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be quite smart about how we manage resources, plan for investment and deliver it\u201d<\/p>\n

Ian Piper, Ebbsfleet Development Corporation<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ebbsfleet\u2019s early days were characterised by economic uncertainty. When original master developer Land Securities (now Landsec) gained planning permission for 6,250 homes in Ebbsfleet Valley in 2007, a banking crisis was brewing that would temporarily stifle hopes of mass development.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole project has now reached something of a stalemate,\u201d wrote thinktank Centre for London in 2014, in a report calling for a development corporation to kickstart delivery.\u00a0 Its wish was granted. Ebbsfleet Development Corporation (EDC), an arm\u2019s-length body of central government, was set up in 2015. Its role is multi-faceted: it acts as the area\u2019s planning authority, oversees design cohesiveness and derisks private sector activity. \u201cWe spend a lot of time looking at what\u2019s the most appropriate intervention we can make,\u201d says chief executive Ian Piper.<\/p>\n

Often, that intervention concerns infrastructure. \u201cEven in simple sites, there\u2019s often a lot of infrastructure that needs to go in first,\u201d says Piper. \u201cOne of the major barriers to larger-scale development is that the infrastructure costs are quite a heavy burden for the master developer to bear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ebbsfleet needed a lot of infrastructure to support human habitation, including nearby road improvements, entirely new grid networks and mammoth earthworks to level the jagged quarry.<\/p>\n

The private sector is taking the lead where it feels able. Henley Camland is master developer for the 6,250-home Whitecliffe neighbourhood, investing in the necessary infrastructure and selling serviced plots to housebuilders.<\/p>\n

But it can\u2019t fill all the gaps. \u201cFor private sector bodies, their primary concern is managing their cashflow,\u201d says Piper. \u201cThat\u2019s where the public sector has traditionally played a role, in providing upfront funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piper says two early infrastructure investment decisions were a major tipping point in encouraging private sector buy-in. EDC invested \u00a330m in two substations and a grid site and \u00a345m in upgrading two junctions on the A2. \u201cThe A2 upgrades were key to accommodate growth,\u201d says Piper. \u201cWithout those improvements, National Highways would have kept on objecting to planning applications.\u201d The corporation is now starting to recoup that upfront cash from developers.<\/p>\n

Not only is funding infrastructure an issue, so is timing the release of construction contracts. \u201cOne of the challenges that we face, and other new housing settlements will face, is how you align the delivery of homes with certain facilities,\u201d says Piper. \u201cYou don\u2019t necessarily want some of these things too soon, when there\u2019s nobody here. It\u2019s inefficient to have a GP with no patients or a school with no children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ebbsfleet\u2019s first primary school opened in 2020, when relatively few children lived in the area. This meant it had to accept pupils from further afield. As places filled up, some new Ebbsfleet residents found they couldn\u2019t send their children to the local school. \u201cIt works its way out eventually when children age out, but for a couple of years there were quite a few anxious parents who understandably expected their children to be able to go to the school,\u201d says Piper.<\/p>\n

Section 106 agreements with housebuilders have been useful for delivering what the town needs at the right time. \u201cThere are certain triggers in [housebuilders\u2019] planning permissions which demand that a school has to be put in after a certain number of housing completions \u2013 it\u2019s quite an effective way of getting them into alignment,\u201d explains Piper. The EDC is currently looking at whether to update the social infrastructure requirements of the original 2007 planning permissions to what would be expected of a similar proposal today.<\/p>\n

Such public-private synergy has been successful in enticing housebuilders to build. Most major housebuilders have been involved in the project: Barratt, Taylor Wimpey, Redrow, Bellway, David Wilson and Persimmon have all built and sold homes in Ebbsfleet. \u201cOne of the reasons why the pace of delivery and the number of homes coming out of Ebbsfleet has been consistently high over the past five years is because there are always multiple housebuilders building and selling at the same time,\u201d Piper says.<\/p>\n

Empty space<\/h3>\n

However, bald patches on the landscape indicate where the challenges are too great to overcome. One particularly large crater marks where a theme park to rival Disneyland was intended. Plans stuttered after protected jumping spiders settled in the cement kiln dust left by decades of cement manufacturing. The developer, London Resort Company Holdings, closed down this January, unable to pay its debts.<\/p>\n

In addition, the land around Ebbsfleet International station remains a car park, although plans were first lodged to create a town centre there in 1998. \u201cIt became clear the private sector was not going to bring it forward,\u201d says Piper, adding that land values and the required infrastructure made the site \u201cheavily unviable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Since it got permission from the government to buy the freehold in 2019, EDC is acting in the role Henley Camland is performing in the Whitecliffe neighbourhood, developing planning proposals and providing upfront infrastructure funding. A fully fleshed-out town centre scheme won planning permission in July. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the things that we\u2019ve been able to do as a development corporation which would be quite difficult to do if there wasn\u2019t a development corporation,\u201d Piper adds. \u201cI\u2019d say it probably wouldn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

For all its support, EDC is no magic money tree. As an arm\u2019s-length body of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, EDC has its budgets set during departmental spending reviews, which happen sporadically. Once it runs out of money, its coffers remain dry until the next spending review, which may not be for years. \u201cWe have to be quite smart about how we manage resources, plan for investment and deliver it,\u201d says Piper.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a far cry from the for visionary state-led masterplanning that characterised post-war new towns like Milton Keynes. That generation of new town development corporations were financed by 60-year fixed-rate loans from central government, originally directly from the Treasury. Of the 307,000 houses coordinated by these development corporations between 1947 and 1993, 231,000 were built by public authorities. Such levels of state support seem unthinkable in the 2020s.<\/p>\n

What kind of state backing might Labour offer the next generation of new towns? Although designated new towns are each allotted their own development corporation under the 1946 New Towns Act, the government has not yet set out whether it will follow the established path. \u201cIt remains to be seen whether the government will introduce further legislation or rely on the current legislation to achieve its aims,\u201d says Tom Pike, director of planning at consultancy Lanpro.<\/p>\n

Hugh Ellis, director of policy at the Town and Country Planning Association, pointed out in a lecture in January that the New Towns Act has been amended so much that the definition of such a development corporation is muddy. He said he understood the New Towns Taskforce was actively debating whether new town development corporations should be led centrally or locally, or some combination of the two.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Traditional] new town development corporations offer the most powerful and unequivocal route, and they do one thing that locally-led doesn\u2019t do \u2013 they bind central government to support the outcome,\u201d he said, adding that private investors might be discouraged by the grim state of local authority finances.<\/p>\n

Katja Stille, director of multidisciplinary consultancy Tibbalds, suggests Homes England could take a leading role instead. Tibbalds worked with Homes England at Northstowe, a self-proclaimed \u2018new town\u2019 with around 2,400 homes delivered out of a planned 10,000. Stille says that from experience, Homes England \u201ccan be visionary, have high aspirations and doesn\u2019t shy away from addressing barriers that get in the way of delivering high-quality, affordable homes\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Ebbsfleet project has highlighted such potential hurdles. But the contractors involved feel more like pioneers than guinea pigs. Graham started building the \u00a380m Alkerden Academy just before Christmas last year. Pat O\u2019Hare, the contractor\u2019s regional director for London, says he was encouraged by early discussions with the client during the tendering phase.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf [the client] has that very ambitious, long-term view, but things happen \u2013 we get confidence. You can see when you walk onto site how well Ebbsfleet has managed it.\u201d He says he would feel comfortable bidding for work on other new towns, based on his experience at Ebbsfleet.<\/p>\n

And, of course, there is still plenty of work on offer at Ebbsfleet itself in the coming years. While Piper says his team is still exploring whether to bundle up work packages and let them to a single contractor, EDC and its development partners have so far meted out work in smaller chunks. O\u2019Hare think this was the right choice. \u201cThe size of this job is massive \u2013 this is not a type of job that one contractor could deliver,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

How might contractors win such work? \u201cWe want to encourage people with a similar ethos and objectives to work here,\u201d says Piper. \u201cWe absolutely understand the commercial imperative \u2013 we\u2019re not asking for freebies \u2013 but we want people who believe in the vision, who see themselves contributing to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hare adds that extra effort is required when working on buildings that are crucial for the success of a new community. \u201cEducational facilities in a development like that are generally the focal point of the whole thing, so we have to get it right,\u201d he says. \u201cWe realised our best people needed to be on this to meet that high level of quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The regular caveats still apply. \u201cWe are spending public money, so we need to have value for money,\u201d Piper says. \u201cBut we would like contractors to bring some innovation and new ideas to the table, as well as very competitive prices.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cWhen you\u2019re setting out to do something really big, there will initially be some scepticism about whether it\u2019s ever going to happen,\u201d says Piper. \u201cThat means that [contractors] are going to want to spend their time investigating opportunities that seem more realistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to provide confidence. You need stuff to start happening. Don\u2019t go out and tell people false promises \u2013 get them to come and see it for themselves.\u201d Contractors thinking about whether to take on new town work might do well to take their own trip to the top of Castle Hill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the government set to announce details on a generation of new towns, CN visits the UK\u2019s only 21st-century \u2018garden city\u2019 A former police station in north Kent is the best spot to contemplate the most successful new settlement the UK has delivered this century. From their converted office at the top of Castle Hill, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141524,"featured_media":514677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false},"categories":[547,79553,559],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n