Local Delivery Vehicles: Principles for Success

For an LDV to drive the development of a Garden City it is essential that the partners agree a shared vision – and that this secures a broad base of public support. They then must build mutual trust and confidence to provide the foundation for working together to achieve this vision, particularly where public funds are being used to support the speed and scale of delivery. The process of establishing the LDV, preparing a business plan, and preparing a master plan are all key steps in building trust between partners and with residents. A shared vision is all the more critical given the challenging global economic environment and move towards greater partnership working on large scale developments. No one organisation can deliver a new Garden City alone – so having the right partners on board is critical and needs significant thought in its own right. Such partnership structures will naturally evolve over the lifetime of a project – for example whilst initially a project may be promoted by specialist land promoters acting on behalf of landowners, with limited involvement from homebuilders or investors and public stakeholders, these will be a requirement for delivery to move forwards. 

At a minimum, partners should be prepared to agree a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) defining their common objectives and the respective role which each partner will play, and this would typically be considered as part of any local plan examination. If the LDV is to be legally constituted, these matters will be addressed in the documents establishing the LDV (e.g. Articles of Association, shareholders agreements etc).  If the LDV is not a legal entity, in due course, the MoU will be underpinned by binding agreements between the local authority land owners and/or developers (who own or have controlling interest in land) normally as part of the planning process.  

The pace of progress will depend primarily on whether staff and financial resources are available to establish the LDV and build up momentum.  Often the local authority does not have the expertise and landowners/developers are not yet confident that the local authority is prepared to establish an LDV.  In the very early stages, it may be necessary for all partners to be prepared to trust one another that each is acting in good faith – and invest resources necessary to establish an LDV on a speculative basis.  This may even be necessary to secure the government revenue support for a new Garden City.  

Rochester Riverside involved substantial public land assembly and remediation as it was a brownfield waterfront site, with the land jointly owned by Medway Council and Homes England, with homes being delivered by Vistry – Credit: Stephen Kennard CC

In taking a decision about the structure, and legal status of the LDV, the local authority and private partners must recognise existing land interest, and the fact that most of the finance for a Garden City will be from the private sector. Meanwhile, the local authority where the Garden City is proposed has a range of statutory duties to ensure that the Garden City is developed to a high standard, meets the needs of new residents, and contributes to improving the quality of the area in which it is located. Private utilities and other infrastructure service providers including education authorities are also key stakeholders in the development of any new Garden City.  

Thus, partners will consider the following matters: 

• Given their democratic accountability, there is considerable value in a local authority controlling any LDV established to promote and deliver a new Garden City.   

• However, owners of all or most of the land allocated for a new Garden City and promoters with a controlling interest in this land, are entitled to play a role in the governance of any LDV.  Their legitimate interests must be reflected in any governance structure.    

• To build trust between the local authority and private owners/developers, it may be helpful to appoint civic leaders as directors with casting votes on the LDV in sufficient number to avoid either the Local Authorities or the landowners having a majority.  These civic leaders could be drawn from voluntary organisations, universities, and colleges, or large businesses with a strong stake in the local community provided they did not have any commercial interest in the project itself.  

• One such, ‘civic leader’ could be appointed as chair of the LDV, to further strengthen its credibility in terms of its focus on the task in hand rather than broader local authority responsibilities. 

• The local planning authority will be responsible for allocating the site for a Garden City through the normal process of preparing their local plan – except where a development corporation is proposed. Strategic Mayoral Authorities will also have powers to bring forward such schemes, albeit without actually allocating them for development due to the legal limitations of Spatial Development Strategies. 

• In the future, Strategic Authorities will clearly play a central role in the success of the Garden City; there is value therefore, in securing the active involvement of county councils in any LDV.  Given their planning and funding powers, the opportunity exists for these authorities to take primary responsibility for the new Garden City – rather than the constituent authorities, particularly in the context of Mayoral Development Corporations being established. 

• If they wish, the local authority could choose to delegate powers to prepare a master plan for a Garden City and control development in accordance with this plan to a LDV. Even if a local authority chooses to do this, best practice suggests that any master plan should be formally approved by the local authority and the LDV should report periodically to the local authority on how implementation is proceeding in accordance with the master plan.     

• The LDV must undertake early consideration of long-term stewardship arrangements and clarify how they will be implemented through the delivery process.  

In establishing the governance arrangements for the LDV, it is important to recognise that the cooperation of many other public bodies is essential to the success of new Garden Cities.  Most of these organisations could be involved in “advisory committees,” or perhaps all that will be necessary is to establish clear lines of communications.  ‘Partners’ in this broader sense include anchor institutions such as National Health Service bodies, local universities and higher education providers, and other large employers. It is important to recognise that eac

Long term stewardship is one of the Garden City Principles so the TCPA has a wealth of resources on it. Our Stewardship Toolkit includes 10 case studies of stewardship arrangements in large scale developments.

The development of successful, thriving new Garden Cities brings with it the creation of a large amount of new public infrastructure and both indoor and outdoor communal amenity space. If adequate funding for maintaining these is not guaranteed in perpetuity when they are constructed, these facilities will degrade. In order for a new Garden City to be successful and improve over time, it is therefore essential that land value uplift is invested in the long term stewardship of a site. This requires delivery partners to agree and set up stewardship systems early in the development process. 

The UK Government launched a consultation in December 2025 on reducing private estate management arrangements, improving accountability, and increasing adoption of amenities by public authorities. However, there is a variety of alternative sustainable stewardship models that have been established in new settlements. These include endowed trusts, such as the Milton Keynes Parks Trust, and new town councils operating income-generating community assets, such as Northstowe’s Unity Centre. In Caddington Woods, Luton, income generating affordable homes were endowed to its new trust, which removed the need for resident service charges .