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This page sets out an overview of different types of local delivery vehicles and provides guidance, consideration and examples of each one. Below that we consider the master developer role, as well as some examples of different types of master developers operating in the UK.
Wholly Owned LDV/SPV
Joint Venture
Informal LDVs
Development Corporations
The master developer role
There are a continuum of LDV models available – from informal contracts between delivery partners on one end, to Development Corporations on the other. The historical record is clear that the private sector alone cannot deliver at the scale of a new Garden City, because of the risks involved.
However, selecting an appropriate delivery vehicle to own land, raise finance and make decisions is only one part of establishing an effective delivery strategy for a new Garden City. Regardless of the legal delivery vehicle adopted, successful delivery also requires an organisation with the capacity to perform the master developer role: coordinating infrastructure, maintaining design quality, managing land release and guiding the vision over the long term, including long term stewardship arrangements after construction is completed. In some cases, including where Statutory Development Corporations are used, a delivery vehicle can itself fulfil this role; but in others it will appoint or contract another organisation to do so.
In considering the best way forward, it is helpful to consider the ‘traditional’ master developer role – to manage the overall consenting and development process, the delivery of site-wide infrastructure, and the phasing of the scheme. This includes (but is not limited to) ensuring that the necessary planning consents are available in a timely manner, ensuring that the necessary finance is available for all the advance roads, utilities, schools and other infrastructure, procuring the design and construction of advance infrastructure, and disposing of individual sites for housing, employment, retailing, and leisure, etc to house builders and other parties prepared to construct the homes and other facilities. A master developer may also retain ownership of elements of the scheme and will have an important role to play in establishing stewardship solutions for a site after it is completed. The Master Developer in effect takes on the risks and opportunities associated with capturing land value uplifts through the development process, as they are responsible for successfully stewarding the site through from planning to delivery.
Regardless of which organisation performs the master developer role, a small professional team is required normally comprising one or more planners/urban designers, property development surveyors, and civil engineers with contract procurement/management experience. Sometimes staff can be seconded from LDV partner organisations. The key, however, is that the individuals undertaking the master developer role must bring expertise in managing complex mixed use schemes, market and affordable housing, and working with a wide range of residential, industrial and commercial developers. In order to secure the right staff for the LDV, Local Authorities may have to offer salaries above their normal grades.
Types of master developers
Traditionally in the UK, the role of master developer has been played by strategic land promoters, who guide sites through the planning process, often on behalf of landowners, and capture land value by absorbing planning risk, the high holding costs of acquiring large areas of land, and of building infrastructure.
Major landed estates and institutions such as the Crown Estate, Duchy of Cornwall and University of Cambridge have also been naturally successful master developers due to their long term fiscal views, even issuing bonds in the case of Cambridge to help fund their developments. However, a range of different organisations can play the role of master developer – in some instances, local authorities themselves have taken on this role, typically through a wholly owned company.
In other cases such as at Northstowe in Cambridgeshire and Burgess Hil/Brookleigh in Sussex, Homes England have intervened during the scheme’s lifetime to purchase land and act as master developer reflecting their landownership interests (see case study below).
Major housing associations are also increasingly taking on this role, for example with Latimer, the development arm of the housing association Clarion, at Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community, and Places for People at Harlow and Gilston Garden Town.
In some cases, where a single landowner, housing association, house builder or consortium already controls all, or most of the site, they may naturally be chosen as the master developer, although this will require clear lines of accountability to be agreed which allow the local authority to have confidence around appropriate and timely delivery. In other cases, where there is no clear overall control and there are a limited number of parties (whether public or private sector), a formal joint venture might be used to structure the partnership.
Otherwise a more informal consortium approach might be used, with local authorities or government agencies supporting the delivery of infrastructure by an infrastructure contractor. Most typically, the master developer role has been led by the primary landowners for a site, or a specialist agent acting on their behalf as land promoter. Increasingly, major housebuilders have also taken on this role themselves as there are only a small number of organisations able to take on the delivery of sites over 5,000 homes given the depth of capital and risk management required. Where land is in multiple ownerships, the role becomes more complex.
Tadpole Garden Village was delivered by Crest Nicholson as Master Developer, with an ambitious set of design standards – Credit: Brian Robert Marshall CC
Example: Eastleigh Borough Council’s master developer role at One Horton Heath
An impressive example of a local authority taking on the role of a master developer is One Horton Heath, led by Eastleigh Borough Council in Hampshire, who acquired the land for the project in March 2018 following market failure to deliver the site. The 310 acre site had outline planning permission for 2,500 homes, a local centre, new primary school, green infrastructure and 2.5km link road. The authority has developed an in-house and commercially focussed delivery team overseen by a joint Member/Officer group. The project’s delivery has entailed very significant prudential borrowing however, with council borrowing projected to be over £500m, and interest payments over £50m during the construction phase. This approach has been recognised by Homes England who have chosen the Council as a Strategic Partner for its Social and Affordable Homes Programme 2026 to 2036. Eastleigh is one of only three councils in England to be chosen.
Example: Homes England’s master developer role at Brookleigh, West Sussex
“This scheme had been stalled for many years due a range of factors that often affect large sites, including the involvement of multiple landowners/promoters who failed to coordinate and collaborate to bring the site forwards for development over a number of years. The site also required considerable on-site and off-site infrastructure that needed to be funded and delivered in a coordinated and integrated way. After being approached by the local authority, Homes England acquired various land parcels (around 200 hectares) in 2018 and 2019 and took on the role as master developer for the 3,500 home scheme, delivering key upfront infrastructure to bring serviced parcels to the market through a phased delivery approach. The agency used £288.8 million of the Land Assembly Fund to acquire the various sites.”
Source: Homes England Public Bodies Review 2023
