Developing A Greener Instinct
The Daily Telegraph, Property, April 19th 2008.When the property developer David Abrahams was found to have donated more than £660,000 to the Labour Party since 2003, the spectre of the Poulson affair was raised once again. Ever since the architect John Poulson went bankrupt in 1971, and was shown to have given local and national governments figures inducements to secure construction contracts, questions have been raised about relationships between developers and local authorities.
But the role of developers has changed dramatically. Not only are they now expected to provide social housing - up to 50 per cent on each development, depending on where it is - but everything else, from roads to schools, hospitals units, lakes, public art and even cinemas. Where local and national funds once provided, private developers now step in. Does this blur the line between development and civic responsibility? and does the arena in which they work mean that they are dodgy dealers or white knights?
Some such as Urban Splash, have become the new place makers. We expect more from them all the time-another three million homes by 2020, most to be built on brownfield sites which need cleaning; all new homes to be zero-carbon by 2016; 10 new eco towns, and a planning bill going through this year which may introduce a Community Infrastructure Levy requiring them to pay for new schools, healthcare and transport. Here, we look at how they are already digging deep into their pockets to curry favour.
CREATE A HOSPITAL UNIT
When the new cardiac and cancer unit at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in the City of London opens this year, Bernadette Cunningham of Thornsett should feel proud. In a triangular deal with St Bartholomew’s and Islington Council, Thornsett agreed to provide Charterhouse thesq (yes, that’s its name) with a new cutting edge research unit along with 50 affordable flats to go with 124 for the open market - all on one of the last Second World War bomb sites left in London. "Being a developer now means thinking about the needs of the community builders or community infrastructure providers. They are asked to pay towards school places, highways, trafic monitoring and pollution, all sorts of things. The latest trick is healthcare contributions," Bernadette says. "It is a deficit, a charltable act and a property tax.
"The differculty will come if house prices come down and councils have got used to developers’ subsidies. There will come a point where it may no longer work."
For sale: The first 80 flats at Charterhouse thesq came on the market last year and sold overnight. Another 44 will come on in July with one-bedrooms starting at £400,000 and two-bedrooms at £500,000 through Currell (0207 253 2533).