Garden Communities and New Towns Development Conference; Sponsored by DAC Beachcroft

Vistry Group – Fiona Milden, Group Planning Director

More information to follow.

Duchy of Cornwall – Nick Pollock, Head of Planning

The Duchy is a private estate established 1337, which funds the public, private and charitable activities of the Prince of Wales and his family. The Duchy has recently formed a consortium with three regional building companies to help develop a 540-acre extension to the coastal town of Newquay. Titled, ‘Nansledan’, the masterplan includes proposals for over 4,000 homes, in addition to shops, school and public spaces. This development comes in addition to Faversham, that could see the delivery of over 2,500 homes.

Mountfield Park Garden Village – Karen Britton, Planning Manager – Development and Engagement

Canterbury City Council have been working alongside Corinthian Land to deliver a major development spanning 565 acres. Upon completion, Mountfield Park will boast 4,000 new homes, including affordable housing, in addition to two new primary schools, a doctors’ surgery, a dental practice, local shops, a community centre, green open spaces, new parks and 69,677 sq m of modern business premises. The development will also increase existing woodland by 50 new acres.

Crest Nicolson Partnerships & Strategic Land – Kieran Daya, Managing Director

Crest Nicholson is a leading developer of quality homes and thriving, sustainable communities. They have expertise in innovative placemaking and creating appealing, well-connected communities where people and nature can flourish. They are currently working with Aviva to deliver the Longcross Garden Village scheme, adopted as a part of Runnymede 2030 Local Plan. Under current plans, the scheme seeks to deliver 1,700 new homes, in addition to retail, food and drink space, as well as community, and leisure facilities, a new primary school, public open space, and sports pitches.

Homes England – Fionnuala Lennon, Head of Garden Communities

Homes England are supporting the development of 43 new Garden Communities across the UK through funding and strategic advice and 2023 has seen an acceleration in planning and delivery of schemes. Fion joins the conference alongside members of her team to actively engage with delegates from across the supply chain and ecosystem and talk about how her team can help realise levelling up related regeneration going forward.

St Cuthbert’s Garden Village – Neil Cole, Head of Planning Policy

St Cuthbert’s Garden Village is an ambitious proposal that could include the development of around 10,000 new quality homes, new employment opportunities, community facilities and the Carlisle Southern Link Road. The council has commissioned several technical studies to look into blue and green infrastructure, drainage, zero carbon technologies, transport, and more. Carlisle has also been awarded an additional £250,000 Government funding following another successful bid for Capacity Funding bringing the garden village vision closer to fruition.

Countryside Partnerships – Rosa Etherington, Associate Director (Planning)

Rosa works in the Planning Team within Strategic Land and Major Projects at Countryside Partnerships, involved in a wide range of long-term projects, varying in size and complexity. Over the last five years been focused on the planning and delivery of Beaulieu in Chelmsford. More recently, Rosa was made Project Lead for the promotion and planning of the 10,000-home Chelmsford Garden Community. Countryside are also delivering 3,000 homes to form the new Ashmere community as a part of the Ebbsfleet Garden City masterplan.

Abri – Stephen Lodge, Executive Director of Development and Strategic Asset Management

Abri is a housing association based in the South of England, providing over 35,000 homes to 80,000 residents. Developing 619 homes in Woodgate, Pease Pottage due for completion in 2025. Stephen will be joining the session to share major development plans and thought leadership on the future of Garden villages.

Town and Country Planning Association – Katy Lock, Director, Communities and Project Delivery

The Town and Country Planning Association works to challenge, inspire, and support people to create healthy, sustainable and resilient places. The association promoted the Garden City idea in 1899, and has since recognised the role new communities play in a portfolio of solutions necessary to provide affordable homes in inclusive, healthy and climate-friendly places. Katy joins us to share insight into the TCPA’s work supporting the latest garden community programme.

Natural England – Mike Burke, Head of Sustainable Development

Mike Burke is the Head of Sustainable Development in Natural England (an arm’s length body in the DEFRA group). Natural England are working on their Sustainable Development Programme that provides significant opportunities to deliver the Environment Act ambitions in a place through more effective use of NE’s planning and species licensing levers. Over the next five years Natural England will be driving more effectively planned, high environmental quality development and infrastructure at a local level; supporting the shaping of net gain policy and implementation to deliver ambitions on the Nature Recovery Network; embedding Green infrastructure and Natural Capital Planning; reforming species licensing to better reflect outcomes for conservation and developing strategic approaches to widespread environmental issues such as water quality.

Karbon Homes – Sarah Robson, Director of Development and Regeneration

Sarah Robson has been Director of Development and Regeneration at Karbon Homes since 2020. With a background in economic development, she has a wealth of experience in development and regeneration across the North East, having worked in senior positions with Durham County Council for 10 years, as well as working for the URC Tees Valley Regeneration and more recently as Corporate Director at Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council. Over the next 10 years, Karbon Homes will be building over 5000 new homes, 750 of these will be affordable homes on the new Seaham Garden Village development, where not only will there be extensive new infrastructure and community facilities but also the potential to use a minewater heating system.

Quinn Estates – Mark Quinn, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Quinn Estates are one of the most proactive mixed-use developers in the South East. They are currently working on a number of garden village projects across the South East, including a 1,700-home garden village near Maidstone, and most notably, the developer has put forward proposals for 8,000 new homes as a part of the Highsted Park Garden Village masterplan, that will include four primary schools and one secondary, a sports hub, infrastructure improvements and an extension to Kent Science Park.

Connected Places Catapult – Erin Walsh, Director of Built Environment

Connected Places Catapult is the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport, and places with the main aim of creating smarter, healthier and more sustainable communities. Erin is the lead of the Built Environment Directorate at Connected Places Catapult focusing on housing innovation, urban infrastructure, and net-zero placemaking and joins us to share her thoughts on the Garden Community movement.

Redrow – Kevin Parker, Group Masterplanning Director

Redrow are one of the UK’s leading housebuilders with a number of Garden Village projects in the pipeline, most notably, a recent application has been lodged for 1,400 homes near Tring. Kevin is an urban designer and town planner with over 20 years’ experience in both the private and public sectors. At Redrow, Kevin and his team are responsible for promoting best practice in placemaking across the company as well as providing urban design support to all of the regions. He has led on the launch of an internal placemaking manual called “Designing a Better Way to Live”, which sets out eight measurable principles – the ‘Redrow 8’ – providing a framework for the delivery of great places across the country.

Welborne Garden Village – Fiona Gray, Project Director

Buckland Developments are the Master Developer of Welborne in Hampshire.  The project is unique in many ways with a legacy vision to deliver homes, employment, infrastructure, green space and more for a sustainable new community in the region.  Fiona is leading on the development and will join the conference to update the audience on the scheme which will include 6000 homes, a multitude of local amenities set against the backdrop of a green, leafy environment.

Pinsent Masons – Richard Ford, Partner

Richard co-leads the Pinsent Masons Garden Communities practice which is advising on over 30 Garden Communities across the UK, ranging from 2,000 homes to 20,000 homes and associated development. He specialises in the full life cycle of advice for Garden Communities projects, including Planning, Funding, Highways, Environmental, Sustainability and Stewardship, as well as Locally Led New Town Development Corporations and other delivery vehicles. As part of Stewardship, he advises on data trusts for Garden Communities to achieve ESG outcomes. He is Tier 1 rated in Chambers and Legal 500 Directories and is a Top Planning Lawyer in Planning Magazine. He has wide experience of major development, energy and infrastructure projects in the UK and internationally and is a regular conference speaker and author of articles in this area.

Building with Nature – Dr Gemma Jerome, Director

Gemma is the Director of Building with Nature (BwN), a national benchmark and accreditation system for green infrastructure. She is an environmental planner specialising in the delivery, management and maintenance of development that puts nature at the heart of its decision-making. BwN is the UK’s first Standards Framework for high-quality green infrastructure and provides industry with how-to guidance to create great places for people and wildlife. She recently co-chaired the British Standards Institute panel for the BS8683 Biodiversity Net Gain standard, sits on the advisory group for the Natural England Green Infrastructure Standards Project, and has acted in an advisory capacity on various Government roundtables directing design quality and placemaking.

Eco Bos – Dorian Beresford, Chief Development Officer

Formed in 2010, Eco Bos is a joint venture between Orascom Development Holding and Imerys to develop a series of sustainable communities, with a pipeline of around 5,000 properties. West Carclaze Garden Village is a part of this scheme and spans across a 500-acre site at the heart of Cornwall’s Clay Country. Plans for the new community include 350 acres of managed country park, 1,500 energy efficient homes, a 210 place primary school and nursery, and a 7MW solar park. Dorian joins us to diccuss the project and Eco Bos’ wide aims to develop sustainable communities throughout the UK.

DAC Beachcroft – Andrew Morgan, Partner

Andrew specialises in all aspects of development consenting, with a particular emphasis on securing planning permission for major residential led mixed-use schemes. He acts for most of the UK’s largest house-builders and regularly advises them on:

• Strategic planning and procedural matters;
• Planning obligations and affordable housing;
• Community Infrastructure Levy;
• Environmental Impact Assessment;
• Planning Enforcement.

He also advises commercial clients on a wide variety of planning issues, including shopping centres and investment funds.

Publica Group – Andrea Clenton, Garden Village Programme Manager

Publica are the not-for-profit company owned by Cotswold, Forest of Dean, and West Oxfordshire District Councils and Cheltenham Borough Council who are leading on the Salt Cross Garden Village project. Salt Cross was one of the First Garden villages to be endorsed by the government. Developing over 2200 homes, schools, science and business park – building ground-breaking, sustainable housing while increasing biodiversity and active travel. Andrea will be join the conference to discuss the progress of the scheme of the Salt Cross Garden Village.

Urban & Civic – Adam Pratt, Development Director

As one of the UK’s leading Master Developers Urban&Civic’s 11 strategic sites, with 6 in delivery, have the potential to deliver 50,000+ homes. Their latest project is a joint venture with Hertfordshire County Council to deliver a £500m urban extension including 3,300 homes together with commercial uses and associated infrastructure, including new schools and a country park. They are also currently finalising the planning prior to the delivery of a 794 acre new community at Manydown, on the western edge of Basingstoke. Adam is responsible for the acquisition and early stewardship of new projects within U&C’s growing portfolio of strategic development sites.

VU.CITY – Alex Tosetti, Chief Commercial Officer

Alex joined in July 2020 to help VU.CITY in the next step of the transformational growth journey. He brings extensive board level leadership experience working for major global consulting corporations, with a strong industry reputation and connectivity throughout London, UK and global cities. He has 30 years of professional consultancy experience in urban regeneration, environmental consulting, and smart cities technology,  and wishes to use this dynamic career experience to create ‘an improved citizen-centric urban environment.’ A leading pioneer of Environmental Impact Assessment and Sustainability within the development sector, and active contributor to industry forums such as BSI, EIC, ACE and the UK PropTech Association.

DAC Beachcroft – Ashley Dewar, Partner – Residential

DAC Beachcroft has one of the largest specialist residential teams in the country. We have the resource and knowledge to provide costs effective solutions, from complex and strategic acquisitions to high volume property management. We work for all the UK’s leading housebuilders, specialist developers and housing associations on schemes including garden villages, build to rent, student accommodation and later life living.

Built Environment Networking – Fahmida Nisa, Host & Event Manager

Nisa is a research, marketing and content specialist at Built Environment Networking. She will be hosting a number of the sessions throughout the day, running the day’s proceedings and managing the interaction between our virtual delegates and the speakers.

Greenbelt – Andrew Duthie, Chief Executive

For 25+ years Greenbelt have been the UK’s leading specialist in the stewardship of public open spaces, providing long-term, high-quality management solutions for outdoor areas and amenities on new residential developments. Their dynamic, in-house workforce ranges from horticulturists and environmental managers to landscape architects and solicitors – all supported by their  specialised customer-facing teams. Greenbelt place conservation and horticultural best practice at the forefront of their service, allowing them to make an important contribution to protecting and enhancing the environment. Their custom-built and truly innovative technology assists and complements their on-the-ground work and elevates the quality above all others.

Turley – David Blackadder-Weinstein, Director, Strategic Communications

David leads Turley’s Strategic Communications service in the Midlands. He has overseen and advised on several major town centre regeneration, new settlement, and land development projects, applying his unique blend of project positioning, public affairs and consultation experience to achieve positive planning, development, and stakeholder relationship outcomes for Turley’s clients. David joined Turley in March 2020 from Midlands Connect shortly after confirmation that the Midlands Rail Hub would become a government priority and integrated with HS2. While Head of External Affairs at Midlands Connect, he played a lead role in devising, launching and executing the #MidlandsEngineRail, #HS2alltheway and #GetHS2done campaigns. Over the last 15 years’ he has worked in both the private and public sectors on major national and regional schemes and broadcast channels. His approach to strategic communications and stakeholder engagement is guided by a commitment to understanding various audiences’ specific needs and desired outcomes.