What are the steps for designing new communities in England?
May 07, 2025
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Putting placemaking first: Key takeaways from a discussion around designing new communities in England
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Feelings of ambition and aspiration, a sense of urgency—but not without apprehension. That’s how I’d describe the current mood washing over the planning, placemaking, and development sectors in recent months. The mandate to build new homes and create new communities in England—and supercharge national growth—has never been clearer. We have arrived at a pivotal moment.
But what will it really take to deliver successful new places?
Recently, I had the pleasure of chairing our latest industry roundtable. We brought together decision-makers and influential voices from both the public and private sectors. Together, we explored the vital role of long-term thinking, meaningful engagement, technical know-how, and output-driven placemaking in our race to speed up national housing delivery. We want to create new communities in England—and this discussion can help us do just that.
Held in the historic Queen Elizabeth Room at RSA House, the roundtable featured a distinguished mix of professionals. These included representatives from the development industry, local planning authorities, and national government. All sharing their visions, concerns, and insights. We spoke around these topics:
- The need for a protected vision. But one that’s still flexible.
- The benefits of early engagement with communities.
- The balance to strike around designing for people and designing for the environment.
Here’s a summary of some of those conversations.
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New communities in England benefit from a vision-led approach.
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Vision, leadership, and legacy
Let’s start with this question: How do we create places that will meet both today’s and tomorrow’s needs? It starts with a vision.
We need to collectively establish and uphold a long-term design vision for new communities in England. It is central to meeting shared expectations. Stakeholders and communities must come together at the earliest stages to agree on that vision. It can then act as a guiding light for meaningful development. It must be bold enough to stand the test of time, strong enough to galvanise diverse partners, and resilient enough to avoid unnecessary dilution as delivery progresses.
But as the saying goes, change is the only constant. There must also be space for adaptability and a responsiveness to shifting community needs and long-term priorities. If a vision is going to evolve, it must do so at the right moment and for the right reasons.
A key theme from our discussion was the need for consistent, long-term leadership and stewardship. These places can take up to 30 years to deliver. Strong, top-down direction is vital. Not just to safeguard a vision but to anticipate change and integrate flexibility without losing sight of the original intent. And, above all, trust is fundamental to this enduring responsibility.
Developers play a critical role in this process. They are the ones who must drive quality and lead delivery—either by setting a strong design vision from the outset or by buying into an existing one and committing to see it through. We see the best outcomes delivered by those who invest early and consistently in the foundational elements of balanced, thriving communities in England. It’s not just housing. It’s also social infrastructure, transport, green space, and economic opportunity.
To make this work, developers must collaborate effectively with local authorities, landowners, government (where relevant), and communities. All parties want to deliver good places. Too often, there’s a disconnect between early ambition and what is built. Strong leadership, paired with the empowerment of delivery partners, can help bridge this gap.
So, do our future places need designated project custodians? Are they duty holders who can foster long-term relationships, maintain the integrity of a design vision, and help its legacy evolve appropriately over time? And can they do so as ownership, policy, or market conditions shift?
Meaningful, early engagement with communities in England
How can we bridge the divide between planning and delivery? And, thus, make communities work for people who live there?
It seems obvious, but as we sat around the table, we all acknowledged the importance of engaging with communities and local businesses early in the development process. Understanding their needs and identifying where synergies might emerge between existing places and new ones is particularly vital when designing at scale. We agreed that this engagement can’t be a one-off moment. It must be a continuous dialogue that builds a shared understanding of both what communities in England need and want, as well as the opportunities that change can bring.
This is collaboration, and it can help everyone move forward together. The end result helps us deliver place-based enhancements to meet local or regional aims.
" }It seems obvious, but as we sat around the table, we all acknowledged the importance of engaging with communities and local businesses early in the development process.
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For example, we talked around innovative trust models. In these, landowners and developers remain actively involved in the early stages as vested parties. Over time, they hand over control to representatives of the new community. It was agreed that this type of approach can help developments remain relevant, responsive, and beneficial as communities in England evolve.
The current plan-making and delivery systems must also become more flexible. Large-scale developments need the ability to evolve in stages. To do this, they should include carefully phased, place-based delivery strategies that positively shape community behaviours and lived experience. Right from the outset.
As projects progress, it’s vital to build stronger connections between planning, design, and implementation. Too often, schemes transition between design teams or client teams at key moments. This can be risky. Unless carefully managed, this can result in a loss of continuity and a drift away from the originally intended outcomes.
The need for balance between nature and people in communities in England
Do we need to be more practical when it comes to environmental stewardship?
We don’t need flexibility only for the vision and leadership. It’s also essential in how we balance designing for nature with designing for people. Our participants agreed that biodiversity net gain (BNG) is a vital step forward in securing positive environmental outcomes. And it helps to embed nature into the fabric of new developments.
However, the way BNG is interpreted and delivered on the ground can lead to some challenges. For example, some at the roundtable raised concerns that BNG-driven spaces may sometimes feel sterile or unmanaged. This is particularly the case when the emphasis is placed purely on meeting metrics rather than creating meaningful, multifunctional landscapes. In some instances, the usability of these spaces for residents can be limited and future adaptability is constrained.
As with many policy shifts, there can be unintended consequences. The group discussed the practical and financial challenges of delivering and managing BNG, especially in public realm settings. We must look at the long-term maintenance of green infrastructure from the start. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s designed as amenity space, wildlife habitat, structural landscaping, or natural flood management. This is a factor that’s too often overlooked. That can’t continue when we’re designing new communities in England.
We noted that smaller sites can feel a disproportionate impact. They have limited space to accommodate on-site BNG and fewer viable off-site options like habitat banks, which can also be costly. Together, there was a sense that we must make sure that BNG doesn’t impact growth. It shouldn’t inadvertently limit design flexibility or reduce site efficiency. And it mustn’t restrict future connectivity in growing communities in England.
That said, this isn’t a call to dilute our environmental ambition. Rather, it’s about striving for better integration. This means that environmental, social, and economic objectives are pursued together. The group emphasised the need for collaborative approaches. Local authorities, developers, Natural England, and other stakeholders can all work to apply BNG in a way that enhances place quality and long-term value.
Delivering successful new communities in England will require more than compliance. It will demand creative, joined-up thinking. That way, we will see BNG not as a constraint but as an opportunity to create richer, more resilient environments for both people and nature.
Shifting travel patterns and parking demands in communities in England
How can we create more sustainable new communities?
Looking beyond nature and biodiversity, design must also play a crucial role in shifting human behaviour patterns. As discussed during our conversations at the Interchange event earlier this year, transport trends were identified as a key driver of these changes. There was a strong emphasis on the need for early sustainable infrastructure planning. This could include mobility hubs, cycle routes, and bus connections to support new residents and encourage better behaviours from the outset. We must make design decisions that encourage the right habits and behaviours from the very beginning of new communities in England.
We are now at a point where design teams area exploring housing typologies and development models that are less parking dependent. Instead, they are built around connectivity and accessibility. Though locational trends exist, younger generations are generally less interested in owning their own vehicle. And with autonomous vehicle technology on the rise, mobility preferences are shifting. This will impact urban design and open new opportunities to rethink the relationship between where we live, how we travel, and the need for dedicated parking. All of this across settlement, neighbourhood, and street levels of scale.
Once again, balance is key—between the conveniences of today and the needs of tomorrow. And between standardisation and innovation in design. The conversation highlighted the importance of future-focused masterplanning and flexible design codes. And on policies that empower local authorities to focus on quality and sustainability while also looking into diverse housing types to suit future needs.
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It’s important to accelerate delivery without compromising on quality.
It’s important to accelerate delivery without compromising on quality.
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What are the opportunities in devolution?
The current shake-up of local government presents new opportunities for shaping the future of new communities in England. Under the latest proposals, all remaining two-tier authority areas are set to be merged into unitary authorities. This includes county, borough, and district councils.
These unitary authorities will combine. It will form new Foundational or Mayoral Strategic Authorities with powers to develop regional development plans.
Some areas could go further and become Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities with additional powers. Those powers could include oversight of Homes England. Strategic Authorities will be expected to prepare regional development plans through a new Spatial Development Strategy framework.
Our panel discussed how this emerging strategic layer of planning opens the door for more joined-up thinking about where and how we grow. It offers us the potential to move beyond historic administrative boundaries and local issues. It also encourages us to think differently. We need to be more ambitious when looking at settlement patterns, transport connectivity, and the integration of green and social infrastructure.
We are seeing reforms and wider national strategies. With them, there is a real opportunity to align regional planning with the long-term needs of new communities in England. Obviously, this supports housing growth. But it also supports economic development, climate resilience, and placemaking that stands the test of time.
Takeaways for designing communities in England
So, what does it take to grow new communities in England in a coherent, continuous, and meaningful way?
From our discussion, several themes stood out.
First, we need to focus on legacy—creating ambitious, long-term visions that can be delivered through outcome-driven design and consistent leadership. That vision must be resilient enough to endure over time but flexible enough to evolve as needs change.
Secondly, we must embrace innovation and balance. We need to integrate nature and biodiversity, while we also design for people and behaviour. Getting the fundamentals right is crucial. But leaving space for creativity and adaptability in the details is just as important. The most successful communities in England are those that find harmony between environmental, social, and economic goals.
Developers. Local authorities. Community representatives. National stakeholders. They all need to work together. We need joined-up thinking and shared responsibility to deliver places that thrive. This needs to be the approach from planning and through to implementation and stewardship.
Finally, we need to think bigger than local. With new opportunities emerging through devolution and strategic planning reform, we can plan new communities in England more holistically. We can do this across boundaries and with a focus on long-term regional outcomes. But we must act with urgency. We need to support the use of clearer, more standardised frameworks to speed delivery without compromising on quality.
With thanks to our participants:
- Matthew James, planning & urban design Manager at Hampshire County Council
- Katie Parry, senior master development & design manager at Homes England
- Anna Parsons, design director at Catesby Estates
- Dinny Shaw, head of planning at Places for People
- Julia Wallace, area lead, Capacity and Capability team at MHCLG
- Tom Looker, urban design director at Stantec
- Michael Parkinson, director at Stantec
- Richard Webb, landscape architect associate director at Stantec