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The future of Legacy-Inspired Developments

Map of town in Kent

The concept of legacy in new communities was conceived and developed by The Prince’s Foundation (now The King’s Foundation) and first put into practice on the then Prince’s own land – initially at Poundbury and more latterly Nansledan and in a range of other projects throughout the UK.

Now as its founder’s duties have expanded considerably, will the legacy movement continue to evolve, and how?

Johnny Clayton, head of Masterplanning at Carter Jonas and James Cordery, a Partner in our Oxford Development team, are both involved in projects for which the central objective is concept of landowner legacy. Here, they consider its future direction and influence.

“Legacy has become an umbrella term,” explains James. “It touches on a variety of aspects relating to the delivery of a development. What differentiates a ‘legacy’ scheme is a clearly defined core of objectives which help underscore quality. These can be wide-ranging – for example achieving a high level of biodiversity net gain, community value and active travel.”

Another important characteristic of such schemes is that these principles are embedded early on. Johnny explains, “Because the impact of legacy is so integral to sense of place and the quality of the scheme as a whole - especially the public realm – it is fundamental at the masterplanning stages.”

Many early legacy schemes took their objectives directly from guidance produced by The Princes Foundation. But landowners’ objectives are inevitably diverse and so too are the opportunities and limitations within any one legacy-inspired development. Consequently Carter Jonas works with landowners to create a bespoke set of objectives for each scheme.

Case study: Winterbourne Fields, Kent

Carter Jonas has drawn up the masterplan for Shaptor’s Winterbourne Fields, a residential-led mixed use community in Kent. A commitment to sustainability permeates every aspect of this 1,815-home new village, with has legacy principles at its heart.

Its masterplanning has been strongly influenced by the focus on sustainable living that developed during the pandemic and, in relation to current environmental and cost of living concerns, remains a priority. The principle of locating community facilities including shops and other public services in close proximity to homes, and prioritising pedestrians, cycling and public transport acquired new prominence during the multiple Covid lockdowns. While the UK adapts to a post-pandemic world, the benefits of increased sustainability, neighbourliness, reduced congestion, improved mental and physical health, and better community resilience continue to influence the community’s development.

The proportion of the UK population working from home remains high (in January 2022 ONS figures stated that 36% reported working from home at least part-time) and this trend provides substantial opportunities for community development. Shaptor has sought to capitalise upon positive changes in working practices and attitudes towards health and wellbeing that seek to promote greater sustainability within the community.

Transport planning is central to this. Winterbourne Fields’ transport strategy has three objectives: to reduce the need for travel; where travel is necessary, to encourage sustainable travel; and in doing so, create a low-carbon community which, due to low emissions and safe and attractive street scenes, encourages active travel over car use. The variety of centrally-located community facilities is intended to capture footfall to benefit the local businesses located there; a string of open spaces through the core, accompanied by public routes, encourages active travel, and existing public transport linkages are utilised and improved upon, with connections established to surrounding villages and onto neighbouring towns with wider rail links.

The extent of on-site amenities (employment, a work hub, a village centre with retail and leisure facilities, a health centre and a primary school) aims to reduce the need to travel offsite, and a stewardship strategy will ensure the ongoing maintenance and vibrancy of the village centre and open spaces.

The potential for a bike hub and e-bike and scooter hire are currently being explored and former roads are being adapted to provide safer walking routes and separate cycle paths.

A public transport hub in the centre of the new community will link local services with a bus express service to Canterbury and Faversham. The hub is crucial to the success of the public transport strategy: the high-quality waiting location is in the vicinity of shops and cafés, which will encourage residents to choose the convenience of public transport over the private car.

Sustainable travel will be encouraged though a movement hierarchy which prioritises walking and cycling in relation to streetscapes, rights of way and efficient, direct routes.

An electric vehicle (EV) charging strategy will enable a more sustainable form of private transport, and an EV charging hub integrated within the village centre (conveniently located for the A2 and designed to serve surrounding villages in addition to Winterbourne Fields itself), will add to the vibrancy of the village centre: Winterbourne Fields will be one of the first new communities to feature a pioneering electric forecourt with shops, cafés and meeting rooms.

Shaptor’s masterplan for Winterbourne Fields is a flexible one which, in addition to having responded to changing social and workplace trends, also responds to both the cost of living and the climate crisis. Each is interconnected: the way in which, for example, the homes are energy efficient and comfortable and therefore encourage homeworking. This deep-rooted approach to sustainable community-building permeates every aspect of the development.

The most sustainable communities are those inspired by a holistic, creative and adaptive approach which integrates every aspect of life. And unquestionably, the best starting point is to locate new settlements in sustainable locations, as Shaptor has done at Winterbourne Fields.

“For the last twenty years much of my work has been what would be referred to as ‘legacy’ schemes,” says Johnny. “Earlier on they tended to be major regeneration schemes on land owned by landed estates in major UK cities including London and Birmingham. But more recently this has extended geographically.”

So how is legacy embedded in this instance? “There’s a focus on quality in the very early stages,” says Johnny. “At the masterplanning stage, we have provided substantial detail on the townscape and the way in which vernacular styles of architecture are maintained on the new development. There has also been a greater focus than usual on how appropriate levels of density can be achieved.”

Throughout the process, Johnny’s team works closely with the landowner, land promotor and developer. In many cases, the landowner will continue to be involved as the leaseholder so will remain responsible for the maintenance of the new community.

James’ work in the context of legacy has been both as a valuer as and as an agent. As such, he sees the application of legacy principles from the point of view of the landowner.

“The legacy approach enables landowner to create a development, often on their own doorstep, which they are proud of, and which is an investment in the local community,” he explains, “But added to that, legacy-inspired schemes provide added value. The financial return may be delayed because of the detail that’s required at an early stage, but ultimately a higher quality scheme will be created and this will invariably attract a higher price.

“It’s also a facilitator. I’m currently working with a private landowner who is looking to maximise value from a site, but it’s constrained by the fact that it’s located within an AONB. Often a scheme in this location wouldn’t get planning consent, but the chances will be substantially increased by the development being community-led and design-led. From a completely cynical point of view, legacy can be used as risk mitigation.

“Similarly in my work with St Modwen in Wantage, I’ve seen how increased value invested in placemaking from the early stages of development has been fundamental to increased profit – both for the landowner and the developer.”

While the preconceived idea of legacy-led schemes tends to be one of tradition – something that has (specifically in the context of Poundbury) been criticised as pastiche. But St Modwen’s work dispels that image: these are modern homes in a modern context. What differentiates them from other new developments is the quality, not only of placemaking, but of design and materials.

But communities such as these are unquestionably the product of the ideas that led to Poundbury and other early examples.

“The work of The Princes Foundation has been fundamental in defining legacy and establishing an initial set of principles,” says Johnny. “But inevitably legacy is evolving and as it expands the principles have to adapt.

“Many developers have benefited from the site-specific design and building manual which was created for Poundbury, but its starting point was a very through assessment of the existing location which the new development too inspiration from. That only really works on a scheme attached to an existing historic town or village.”

It is clear that schemes established on legacy principles invariably deliver quality schemes. But is this the direction in which all new developments are heading? James and Johnny agree that the legacy movement is grow in popularity, and increasingly so as schemes such as Winterbourne Fields come to fruition.

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