The Village, St Austell

The site was formerly owned by British Rail and was earmarked in the 1995 St Austell local plan for mixed use. Restormel BC (RBC) with the help of the South West RDA began discussions with British Rail to purchase the land with English Partnerships (EP) lined up as a developing partner.

EP agreed to provide funding for surveys and commercial assessment for the site while RBC were to fund the development of a masterplan with the help of the Urban Villages Forum (UVF). Discussions also began with the RSL Devon and Cornwall Housing Association (DCHA) for the affordable housing provision. When EP decided to pull out of a potential land purchase, DCHA stepped in to provide funding, under their private development arm Westco, and became a joint development partner with RBC and Midas Homes.

David Lock Associates was appointed to design a site masterplan in February 1998. An 18 month masterplan development process involved planning for real interactive days with local residents and service providers, local newsletters and resident surveys. The resulting masterplan was adopted in January 2001.

RBC and DCHA, with help from the Princes Foundation held a series of selection panels to choose a private developer to build the homes. Midas Homes was selected in January 2002 and outline planning permission granted a month later. Further public consultations on detailed designs were carried out in March/April 2002. The development brief was revised and outline consent granted in October 2002 and a building licence agreed with Midas Homes. Full planning was granted in January 2003 and work began on site in July and the site will be complete by the end of 2007.

So the development structure is not typical of market sale development. Here, up front money and time was spent by the Local Authority and RSL-led delivery team to develop a detailed masterplan with full public participation. In the development agreement, Midas Homes bought land plots in parcels from the Restormel/DCHA jv for an agreed price then built and sold the units.

If units fetched more than the anticipated price, the jv received an increased percentage for the land price. So the slow release of land by parcels took pressure off Midas Homes to deliver the units in double quick time, allowing them to focus on quality, while the jv, and crucially Local Authority should benefit both from the uplift in land value enabled by the quality and the lower social and economic running costs associated with places built to a high quality.