The delivery of new homes has for some time now been a key priority for the current government, previous governments and inevitably will remain so for future governments. With the scale of housing needed to begin to make a dent in the housing shortage, comes also the need to provide infrastructure, new public realm, community and recreational facilities and green space. While the focus is on identifying strategic sites to help deliver the housing needed, greater consideration must be given to the legacy arrangements required to ensure that once residents are living in the delivered houses, they are embedded within a community which offers the recreational facilities and greenspace to sustain and enrich what is simply ‘living’. Stewardship is key to that enrichment and should be addressed early in the development management process. Creating communities requires more than just bricks and mortar.
This article was first published in Property Law Journal (November 2019) and is also available at www.lawjournals.co.uk
