EmailFollowing the comprehensive spending review, public sector bodies face immediate challenges as they identify how best to respond, whether by restructuring staff and services, raising funds through the sale of assets - or a combination of both.
Public sector agencies are experts in how they deliver services and how they can operate more effectively while doing so. But one area that is often overlooked is property holdings, rarely used to their full potential, and which can be a significant source of value.
Major decisions about estates – sites and land in particular, come up infrequently but can significantly benefit operations and service delivery, including the ability to secure receipts to help bridge funding gaps.
Masterplanning takes a strategic approach to the design and use of sites such as these. It is a tool for creating value - in terms of financial receipts from the disposal of land, or creating the right environment for efficient service delivery.
Rationalisation
Masterplans may aim to achieve rationalisation to free up funds, to deliver improved facilities in a different configuration, or to demonstrate that development of land is appropriate in planning terms. Local authorities, schools, healthcare trusts, charities and other organisations can all take advantage of the approach.
A masterplan sets out a long term vision for the future of a site, together with a strategy for achieving that vision.
It is most useful for large sites where change will happen over the long term, on a phased basis, by different parties, or where there are high levels of uncertainty and it is vital to retain flexibility to respond to changing circumstances.
A good masterplan provides a compelling illustration of the future place, which helps to promote the development opportunities. This is accompanied by a 'framework' of design principles, to coordinate the detailed schemes that will come forward, so ensuring coherence and cohesion.
In this way, a masterplan raises confidence, providing a welcome degree of certainty for future developers in a difficult economic climate, without designing everything in detail.
Preparing the masterplan should engage a wide range of interests, including the local community, with the aim of consensus building and smoothing the process to avoid costly delays further down the line.
The government's localism agenda for planning is bound to reinforce the need to build consensus and get local buy-in to proposals, which is already embodied in good masterplanning practice.
For a number of years, Hampshire county council has invested in masterplanning to generate receipts from the sale of surplus land, to fund educational and other projects. We have worked with their in-house estates team to prepare masterplans that form the basis for obtaining outline planning permission before sites are sold.
Framework principles
The 'vision' helps to explain and build support for the proposals, from planners and neighbours. The 'framework' principles and outline planning approval mean that developers know what is likely to get detailed planning permission and can bid accordingly.
Experience has shown that this approach speeds up planning, promotes developer interest and most importantly secures higher receipts to meet target programme dates.
It has been applied to a range of sites, from small housing sites of around 10 units, to Merton Rise, a major extension to Basingstoke of 1,000 dwellings, which is currently being built out.
The masterplan for Merton Rise included replacing a run down and underperforming secondary school in the nearby area with a new community college at the heart of the new neighbourhood centre, part funded by the sale of the original site.
By following this approach, the development of surplus land directly supports the council's corporate objectives quantitatively, by maximising funding, and qualitatively, as our masterplan ensures a well designed development that creates the quality of environment to which the county aspires.
With more public sector organisations considering their options, this approach could be a valuable tool for making more of underused assets across the country. In the current climate of continuing austerity it is more important than ever not to lose sight of the strategic picture as change takes place.
Jane Dann is director, Tibbalds Planning & Urban Design
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