Walker Morris / Case Studies / Harlow & Gilston Garden Town

Sowing the seeds for the UK’s biggest garden town

Harlow & Gilston Garden Town (HGGT) is the UK’s biggest new town project for a generation – an ambitious plan to build 23,000 new homes across five local authorities, including three district councils and two county councils. Navigating the planning process has been a true team effort, drawing on our multidisciplinary skills and decades of experience.

Bold vision

The Harlow & Gilston Garden Town (HGGT) project has an ambitious vision, comprising 23,000 new homes and four new garden settlements. The Gilston Area is the largest of these, comprising 10,000 dwellings across seven garden villages and major infrastructure such as two new river crossings. Walker Morris acted for East Herts District Council and Hertfordshire County Council in respect of the Gilston Area to help get the project off the ground.

This followed on from Lee Gordon’s earlier work over many years as lead adviser on HGGT to the five partner authorities. Primarily focusing on the Gilston area and associated infrastructure, our team has provided strategic direction and risk reduction at every step – from infrastructure delivery and habitat regulations to advising in planning committee, negotiation of complex Section 106 agreements, defending judicial review proceedings and land transfers.

A project of this scale brings equally large and varied challenges. Major infrastructure hurdles. Cross-boundary challenges. The conflicting demands of multiple parties. The project has also faced significant legal objections throughout the planning process – all while needing to remain commercially viable.

The planning and consents work for the Gilston area raised the full range of legal points, from EIA and Habitat Regulations through to heritage duties, local government law and viability matters. Our strategic advice on the applications and advice at committee stood up to the scrutiny of the courts in various judicial review challenges.

Collaborating with stakeholders

From the outset, we’ve taken a highly collaborative approach, bringing together landowners, local authorities and developers to keep everyone aligned – despite the inevitable bumps in the road. Our team understands the proposal inside out, having meticulously reviewed thousands of pages of reports.

This depth of knowledge has allowed us to play a leading role in the process, whether that’s supporting the making of difficult decisions or providing crystal clear advice to the planning committee. We pride ourselves on both having a keen eye for detail whilst always retaining a laser focus on strategic objectives and practical realities.

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Advising on the largest garden town project in a generation took a truly multi-disciplinary approach – drawing not only on our planning expertise, but including specialists from areas such as transactional property and procurement.

Lee Gordon

Walker Morris

A single, unified vision

Typically, a project of this nature at the Gilston Area, which included separate planning applications by two separate owners, would involve separate Section 106 planning agreements. But we knew that this approach wouldn’t be the optimum solution for the comprehensive delivery of key site wide infrastructure and community benefits across ownerships.

A single, unified vision was essential to bring everyone together. So we promoted the need for and successfully negotiated a combined Section 106, knitting the proposals into one coherent framework across ownerships, supporting comprehensive delivery and collaboration between stakeholders.

Securing critical funding

Securing funding has been a critical factor, especially with such major infrastructure required. As part of our role, we helped secure a £171m Housing Investment Grant (HIG) agreement from Homes England to support two new river crossings and other infrastructure across the garden town. We also negotiated a recovery strategy so these funds could be reinvested into further infrastructure. To unlock this investment against incredibly tight timescales involved a huge team effort.

After many years of work, we’ve helped secure permissions for the Gilston Area and new river crossings which are both now free from legal challenge. Key transport infrastructure is being delivered and developers are preparing to get on site and discharge pre-commencement requirements. While there will no doubt be challenges ahead, with both planning and a Section 106 now in place the path is clear for the comprehensive delivery of this landmark regeneration project.

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Walker Morris provided high-quality legal support to East Herts District Council in relation to the Gilston Area project, the largest and most complex planning scheme the Council has considered totally 10,000 new homes. Lee and his team demonstrated strong technical expertise, clear judgement and a practical, solutions-focused approach throughout the process. Their advice supported the Council in addressing complex matters relating to affordable housing, infrastructure, viability, education, transport, community provision and long-term stewardship.

Their contribution was particularly valuable in the development of bespoke legal agreement provisions, support to the committee and reporting process, and in responding to legal challenges. East Herts District Council would not hesitate in recommending Walker Morris to other local authorities requiring specialist legal support on major and complex development proposals.

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