The missing piece: the case for a public sector master developer

This is because the public sector – in holding powers over funding and financing, the planning system and the land market – is in a uniquely powerful position to assemble, master plan and oversee the development of land in the public interest. [...] This is largely due to the failure to develop the institutions necessary to confront the lack of private and public master development capacity and to lead the development of new settlements on a large scale. [...] Publicly led master development is commonplace across the world Institutional capacity to lead the delivery of great new places to live and work in the public interest is commonplace in many parts of the world – and these examples can be instructive in considering the institutional innovation needed in the UK. [...] Second, this new body would be empowered to go beyond the current model of public sector land assembly and disposal, and, instead, focus on staying invested in schemes for the longer term so that it could then control the development (with a view to maintaining high levels of quality and sustainability), capture and reinvest value in the scheme in the longer term, and in the process shape the wide. [...] This would involve the parties to each development (including the master developer arm of Homes England) setting out the investment commitments over the long term, and the expectations for value generation and revenue back to the exchequer over the lifetime of the scheme – with delivery commitments in return.