Special Report - Hounslow - 1.5m New Homes

0:08

hello I'm Toby Fox from 1.5 million new

0:11

homes the local government challenge

0:13

sponsored by Red Loft and Hadley

0:15

Property Group so the government wants

0:18

one and a half million new homes built

0:20

and the key delivery arm for that

0:22

National ambition is local government

0:25

either as the planning Authority giving

0:26

permission for new homes to be built or

0:29

as the partner in a joint venture with

0:30

the private sector or directly

0:32

delivering new homes themselves so I'm

0:36

visiting a different Council every month

0:38

to understand what works and What needs

0:40

to change for councils to deliver more

0:43

homes one of the big issues facing

0:45

councils is enabling communities to feel

0:48

that they've got an ability to shape the

0:51

future of their place and involvement in

0:53

the housing that's being delivered so

0:55

I'm here in houndslow this month and

0:58

I've come to the G SK site the old

1:01

pharmaceutical Works uh in houndslow

1:03

it's a huge empty office site that

1:07

Hadley Property Group are going to

1:08

redevelop and I'm here with Matt

1:11

Griffith's rimmer and Mabel ogendo to

1:14

understand how they've got the community

1:16

involved in the future of this

1:18

particular place um Matt do you want to

1:20

tell us a little bit about where we are

1:22

and what this site is and what the

1:23

potential is sure Toby yeah uh thanks

1:25

very much for having us on we are as you

1:28

might be able to just hear in the

1:29

background on the Great West Road in

1:31

brenford and behind us is the former GSK

1:34

building um so formerly uh a global

1:38

pharmaceutical headquarters soon to be a

1:41

thousand plus homes and a range of other

1:43

uses including Parkside living Riverside

1:47

activation all sorts really we're just

1:49

kind of uh we're in the early stages of

1:51

Master planning but very exciting

1:53

project and how have you gone about um

1:55

getting the community engaged in this

1:57

project I think to be honest you can't

2:00

do it without really applying quite a

2:01

lot of resource to it it's uh it's

2:03

something that we pride ourselves on at

2:05

Hadley and we have quite a large

2:07

in-house comms team so that we can

2:09

manage this ourselves a lot of the time

2:11

you find that you work with agencies but

2:13

they're not quite they can't really tell

2:14

your story the way that you need your

2:16

story to be told so we spend a lot of

2:18

time with local communities we spend a

2:20

lot of time doing social value work and

2:21

Outreach but also in terms of what we

2:23

present we kind of go over overboard

2:26

rather than holding back information

2:29

what sort of resistance do you find from

2:31

the community in hlo particularly and

2:33

perhaps communities more generally in

2:35

developments that you're involved with

2:37

to those developments how how how do

2:39

communities react when when when you're

2:41

involved in a development so you're very

2:43

used to as a developer going into a room

2:47

on the back foot because there's very

2:48

little trust in in our industry and in a

2:51

lot of circumstances that's perfectly

2:53

Justified and correct so if you go in

2:57

early and you try and work from a

3:00

position of good faith then you can hope

3:03

I mean these are long processes and so

3:05

building trust is never going to take 5

3:06

minutes but at the same time if you've

3:08

been dedicating enough time and resource

3:10

and you are you speak with Integrity

3:13

then I think you can kind of get there

3:15

houndslow it's pretty early doors and we

3:18

haven't really felt a lot of push back

3:22

yet we we probably will but that that's

3:24

just speaking from experience working in

3:26

London development elsewhere people very

3:30

suspicious of your motives people are

3:32

very suspicious of the council's motives

3:34

so you can talk about affordable housing

3:36

but then the conversation switches to

3:38

what's really affordable so then you get

3:39

into a conversation about shared

3:41

ownership and so there are broader

3:43

societal issues that mean that people

3:46

are distrustful of the property industry

3:48

in general but like I said developers

3:50

have not made this easy for themselves

3:52

either what's your view of this place

3:55

Matt in the future if you look 10 15

3:57

years down the line what is this place

3:59

going to be like this is super exciting

4:01

this is the most probably the most

4:02

high-profile scheme that I've been

4:04

involved in um so this campus is a 14

4:08

Acre Site um road to the South we've got

4:12

other roads there and then we've got

4:13

Park and water all on those edges but

4:16

it's been completely closed off for the

4:18

last 20 years so just understandably an

4:22

HQ for a for a farmer company doesn't

4:24

want anyone walking through but we do so

4:26

what we want to do is get the fences

4:27

down try and create routs through try

4:30

and open this up Boston Mana Park's an

4:31

incredible resource and it's just a two-

4:33

minute walk that way but it's not really

4:36

that accessible to the southern side of

4:38

the Great West Road so I see this being

4:40

a very inclusive new neighborhood

4:42

massive range of tenures so um

4:45

affordable housing for sale housing

4:48

built a rent housing probably some

4:49

student accommodation as well we're

4:51

trying to mix it all up and trying

4:52

trying to make it as intergenerational a

4:55

place for people to stay rather than a

4:57

kind of transient community so may where

5:00

does your understanding of getting

5:02

communities involved in development come

5:04

from well I guess it's basically um

5:07

living in an area like tmid where

5:09

there's been a lot of Redevelopment

5:10

happening over the years it's given me

5:12

the opportunity to really understand how

5:13

important it is that local communities

5:15

are involved in what happens in their

5:17

areas and they feel a part of whatever

5:19

comes forward that's new as well and how

5:21

are you applying that knowledge to the

5:24

development here GSK site in hsow so I

5:28

guess what it is is we do a lot of

5:29

Community engagement we go out to where

5:31

the communities already are if there's a

5:33

there's a market happening we'll attend

5:34

the market if there's a community

5:36

meeting we'll attend that we'll do

5:37

Street surveys anyway to kind of get

5:40

into the community and really meet the

5:42

individuals that are going to be present

5:45

once once the new development is brought

5:47

forward and how much time and effort are

5:48

you putting into that it's a it's a good

5:51

amount of time it's a good amount of

5:53

time I would say you know it's been

5:54

really great so far getting to know the

5:56

people of brenford because there are so

5:58

many communities within this one

6:00

Community um and so I've been to so many

6:04

community events we've done I said it

6:05

already but we've done markets and all

6:07

the rest things like that and also we're

6:09

doing outside of the traditional

6:11

consultation we're also doing code

6:13

design to really understand what the

6:15

community really wants from this do you

6:17

want to unpack code design a bit why is

6:19

that different from just cons

6:20

consultation yeah sure so code design

6:22

really gets into the nitty-gritty of

6:25

what the community want um what they

6:27

really really need so what we started by

6:29

doing Street surveys to kind of find out

6:32

outside of the built form of the

6:33

buildings what else what are your key

6:35

areas of interest and we found six key

6:37

themes and so what we've done is we've

6:39

appointed uh neighborly Labs who are

6:41

engagement Specialists and Metropolitan

6:43

workshops who are Architects to work

6:45

together to undertake six um codesign

6:49

sessions which are small groups of 10 or

6:51

so people who have registered their

6:53

interest in these particular topics do

6:55

you want to tell us a few of those

6:56

themes that people are really interested

6:58

in yeah sure so accessibility uh places

7:01

for women and girls spaces for women and

7:03

girls green and blue play spaces and uh

7:06

commercial uses are some of the key

7:08

areas of the codesign so pick one of

7:10

those and explain how that might be

7:13

pulled into the design the redesign of

7:15

this incredible kind of headquarters

7:17

that's being completely repurposed one

7:19

of the sessions that I really enjoyed

7:21

was the uh young people session so I

7:23

think it's really important that young

7:25

people get involved in what's happening

7:26

in their communities because as they

7:27

come forward over the years they will

7:29

have the most access to it and it's been

7:32

really really good session because

7:33

they've had some amazing ideas about

7:35

what matters to their communities so

7:37

it's um talking about intergenerational

7:39

play talking about how they can engage

7:41

with older Generations Within These

7:43

spaces has been really important for

7:45

them but also the facilities that are

7:47

available so maybe it's a podcast

7:49

Studios that they would like to see

7:50

coming forward or it would like they

7:52

would also like to see some food and uh

7:55

retail options that would entice them

7:58

affordability divers City and the

8:00

options um really important ideas and I

8:02

was like really Blown Away in a positive

8:05

way by the options that they brought

8:07

forward in that session can you describe

8:09

any of those yeah so um somebody

8:11

suggested one of the young people was

8:13

really big on having an Hala Food Market

8:16

um because they said that going to

8:17

school they had friends from different

8:18

ethnicities who would they want to make

8:20

sure that they would be able to eat with

8:21

them in the same spaces uh they talked

8:24

about um book spaces outdoor book spaces

8:26

so that they could sit and read books

8:28

with their friends but also older people

8:30

would give them the opportunity to

8:31

engage with older people so they don't

8:33

look like such a threat when they're

8:34

hanging out in big groups as well so

8:36

some of those ideas have been really

8:37

really good and what happens to those

8:39

ideas now that you've got them how does

8:41

that feed into what actually takes place

8:43

here in this place yeah so as well as

8:46

neighborly labs and metworks uh helping

8:48

us uh facilitate those sessions we had

8:50

the Architects join some of those

8:51

sessions but now we're as a project team

8:53

we're all going to come together and

8:54

review all the feedback that we've

8:56

received and have some serious

8:57

conversations about the ideas that have

8:59

come forward and how we can make sure

9:00

that they are Incorporated and how we

9:03

feed that back to not just those that

9:05

participated but everyone in the wider

9:06

Community as well fantastic thank you

9:09

very much indeed thank you now I'm here

9:11

with Tom Conan from Red Loft to dig a

9:14

little bit deeper into this issue of

9:16

engaging communities in the development

9:18

of new homes Tom um it's not quite as

9:21

simple as it seems is it or is it a

9:23

no-brainer that we need to get people

9:25

more involved in shaping their

9:28

places thanks say I mean think you're

9:30

absolutely right we we of course we need

9:32

to engage communities in shaping

9:33

community in shaping development and

9:35

good development will always include a a

9:38

proper full wholesome engagement process

9:41

where you're listening to to to views

9:43

you listen to a multitude of views and

9:45

that process must and does improve

9:48

improve proposals it improves improv

9:50

schemes that come forward then to to to

9:52

planning committees um one of the areas

9:56

though where I feel the industry can

10:00

sometimes be you know could be more

10:01

robust is absolutely we need to listen

10:04

to to our views but if you've got

10:05

schemes where um working on on a a

10:08

moment we've had about thousand

10:09

responses um and amongst you can imagine

10:12

those thousand responses there's a full

10:14

spectrum of of views and it's

10:16

identifying actually that those with the

10:19

loudest voices do not necessarily

10:21

represent the kind of the broad the

10:23

broad swoop of of opinion so it's it's

10:27

okay to say yes we've listened and you

10:29

must listen but you can conclude that

10:32

through that

10:33

listening the the direction you take um

10:36

won't please everybody but that's okay

10:38

you can justify that you can you can

10:40

support that through through through

10:42

other views other evidence and that's

10:44

okay and it's okay to be that position

10:46

and that robustness is needed to enable

10:49

us to kind of continue to develop and

10:50

continue develop in a sustainable um in

10:52

a sustainable way so how are you making

10:55

that decision that it's okay is it okay

10:57

because you are listening to the

10:59

majority and it's only a minority that

11:01

you're you're um ignoring or is it okay

11:04

because the voices that you're hearing

11:07

are the ones that are agreeing with what

11:10

you already want to do yeah I wouldn't I

11:12

wouldn't say the word ignoring because I

11:14

think say you we're absolutely listening

11:16

um but it might be that is the case some

11:19

of the the the points of opposition um

11:22

that actually the facts don't don't

11:23

support it or or there's been and

11:25

perhaps the communication about the

11:28

proposals haven't been necessarily

11:29

interpreted in to interpret it correctly

11:32

so it's it's about it's about responding

11:34

to those those views but also setting

11:36

out um actually um there's you know

11:40

there's there's you've interpreted this

11:42

as as X um but actually we're not

11:44

proposing X we are proposing Y and it's

11:45

about our communication to get that to

11:47

get that to get to get that across so

11:50

it's about misunderstandings sometimes

11:52

about misunderstandings um sometimes

11:54

though is you know not everybody wants

11:56

development on their on their back door

11:58

do they it doesn't mean that it's the

12:00

it's if if we're going to get to 1.5

12:02

million homes um it doesn't mean that's

12:04

the that's the that's the overarching

12:06

overriding view um so it's at times you

12:10

have to say no we need these homes we

12:12

need these developments this is for the

12:14

kind of wider societal benefit um and

12:19

and on this occasion um we take we take

12:21

we note your view but it's right that we

12:24

continue um with with with with what

12:26

we've proposed Tom conin from redoff

12:28

thank you very much so continuing the

12:30

conversation about this development at

12:32

the GSK site uh by Hadley Property Group

12:35

in uh houndslow uh with councelor Tom

12:38

Bruce from hanslo Council Tom um we've

12:41

heard a lot about how the community has

12:44

been involved in shaping what the GSK

12:47

site is going to become um what's your

12:49

take on that so to start with I've been

12:52

really impressed with how hadle have

12:54

come in to the borrow working uh across

12:57

a range of uh communities with the

12:59

Council directly with counselors uh Ward

13:02

counselors residents just involving

13:04

themselves in what matters to the borrow

13:07

and what matters to the community but

13:09

really getting a sense of what the site

13:11

what the um positive aspects of the site

13:14

currently are what things need to be

13:16

changed and how it can be seen in the

13:19

future I think one of the Fantastic uh

13:21

elements to this was that one of my

13:23

first conversations with them is was

13:25

about the Great West Road I'm really

13:27

clear that I see the Great West Road in

13:29

some ways as a bit of a barrier between

13:31

the South and the north sections of that

13:34

area and anyone who wants to come into

13:36

that area looking at ways of of creating

13:40

more permeability they were very on

13:42

board with that and in fact took it

13:43

further and said well it's not just

13:44

about the Great West Road it's about our

13:46

whole site and into the park at the back

13:49

so really even early on they knew what

13:52

was needed in that area they could see

13:54

just by the site develop by the site

13:56

itself and then they've developed that

13:59

um and and widen that out working with

14:01

the council working with communities and

14:02

listening to to what local people want

14:04

and how that would support um people

14:07

living you know the best life in that

14:09

area whether it's on the site itself

14:11

when houses are there or whether it's

14:12

people in the community around it and is

14:14

that your usual experience of working

14:17

with the development sector um to be

14:20

generous I it's mixed I think some

14:23

developers take a bit of encouragement

14:25

to look at look at things in that way

14:27

there are lots of uh developers who are

14:30

very good at doing that sort of thing so

14:32

I wouldn't say it's Unique but they

14:34

certainly didn't need any encouragement

14:36

uh Hadley to get involved in the local

14:38

community to have conversations with us

14:40

at all levels in the council and to try

14:43

and demonstrate you know they were here

14:45

not just to plunk a load of boxes on a

14:49

site but they wanted to create a place

14:51

and a community it's incredibly

14:52

important to me it's incredibly

14:54

important to this Council and they are

14:56

showing currently that it's very

14:58

important to to them as well Castle

15:01

Bruce thank you very much you so that

15:03

wraps up another small mini Special

15:06

Report from 1.5 million new homes the

15:09

local government challenge sponsored by

15:10

Red Loft and Hadley Property Group hope

15:13

you found it interesting do click like

15:15

And subscribe if you did and we'll look

15:17

forward to seeing you next time thank

15:19

you

Share Episode

Shownotes

Transcripts

Follow

Links

Chapters

Video

More from YouTube