The £80 million mixed-use Clapham One scheme is not your usual public-private partnership (PPP). Not only is it being delivered to exulted standards in design, but is pushing the boundaries of PPPs altogether.
Clapham town centre has been undergoing an aesthetic renaissance in its architecture in recent years. The new Clapham One project provides a litmus test not only on the ability to improve the vibrancy of the built environment in the high street area, but on the ability of local authorities to marry their objectives with those of private sector delivery partners.
The London Borough of Lambeth, working with PPP specialists Cathedral Group alongside United House, is providing Clapham with a brand new leisure centre complex , a high quality library, and a mixture of supremely designed private residential and affordable housing units at no cost to the council.
Clapham high street could be considered the centrepiece of retail, commercial and industrial development in an area that spreads south to Clapham Common and north towards Stockwell. As part of the project, Cathedral Group were able to leverage £35 million including a £12.7 million loan from the Homes and Communities Agency’s Kickstart programme and a grant of £5.5 million from the National Affordable Housing Programme. This enabled them to pre-sell £46 million of the private sector element to provide the council facilities.
But in a climate of rising property prices, increasing housing shortages and mortgage unavailability what was the key to its success?
‘It’s a pure partnership,’ commented Martyn Evans, marketing and creative director at Cathedral Group. ‘The key thing for Cathedral is an overarching view of the whole development to ensure the best things are maintained.’
Construction on the two Lambeth council sites include Mary Seacole House - demolished and rebuilt into the new Guggenheim-esque spiral library designed by Studio Egret West - and the cutting-edge leisure centre. Joint development partners United House secured a £29 million contract to build the facilities including 136 modern apartments located above the ground floor.
Tallying up with this is the overhaul of current council run leisure facilities at Clapham Manor Street with the creation of a state-of-the-art sustainable leisure centre designed by LA Architects. Establishing clearly defined criteria for the development progress was based on a strong rational and building a trustworthy relationship with the developers. A design champion was also crucial for engaging with the local community.
‘We decided we wanted to rebuild but kept talking to people through aspects of the competitive dialogue,’ said Nigel Haselden, cabinet member for regeneration, planning and strategic transport at Lambeth LBC.
‘The old building was built in 1932 but kept good abject qualities. We tried to take the abstracts of the old building i.e lighting and apply this [to the new centre] and used local schools for consultation.’
Using local authority asset backed vehicles (LABVS) for long term investment and regeneration is not a new idea. But Clapham One’s model departs from the more traditional private finance initiative (PFI) leaseback mode. The local authority donated land up-front, in return for a share in the spoils of future profits at thresholds above a cap as the property is handed back to the council after completion.
‘It’s not often used in property terms in this current economic climate,’ admitted Evans, but he told LGN that at a time when councils are struggling financially, an ‘impetus’ for new models to counteract entrenched relations between local authorities and developers is now needed.
A ‘public service ethos’ is key, according to Evans, in establishing the building blocks for long term trust. ‘Where schemes are most successful is where an entrepreneurial spirit is there,’ explained Evans, adding that a realisation of ambitions on both sides is needed to execute successful projects - and to avoid a simple ‘sell out’ to private partners.
‘We’re street fighting entrepreneurial developers. It’s in our blood to squeeze out the best deal for local authorities.’ According to Cathedral Group, local authorities most valuable assets are the land they own. In the past, some developers have acquired assets cheaply and sold highly. This, matched with the sometimes exacerbated arbitrary contractual Section 106 agreements, has led to distrust. A move away from such adversarial relationships is reportedly now needed to optimise development on both sides.
‘Spending a lot of time on public consultation is an absolute no brainer,’ said Evans. ‘We have a separate conversation with councils based on place making and proposed development - working out how to sweat assets.’
Lengthy consultation seems to be crucial to agreements between private and local authority partners but how were the local residents who made use of the former leisure centre catered for before and during the work?
‘A two-year programme made clear the arguments for the facilities in the borough,’ said Haselden.
‘We made specific bus arrangements for all school parties and made people know about Lambeth’s facilities in neighbouring boroughs.’
Improvements to the leisure centre at the Clapham Manor Street site are accompanied by 63 new homes - 44 of these are affordable homes provided in association with Notting Hill Housing Trust and 19 are available for open market sale.
The leisure centre has achieved a BREEAM ‘very good’ rating and reached Level 3 of the Code for Sustainable Homes. It features roof mounted solar panels and meets all the relevant housing indicators through the HCA. Every resident has also benefited from the provision of a new hybrid bike to encourage sustainable living.
‘We’re helping people to make the first steps on the property ladder and they’ve sold very well,’ explained Lawrence Norton, senior project manager at Notting Hill Housing Trust.
‘The bikes were well received- it’s not a common occurrence where you get a new affordable home where a bike is there,’ he added.
It is clear PPPs require large elements of trust and understanding on both sides. But land donation may not always work well for every council at times of increasing belt tightening, so what is the advice to councils considering this procurement approach?
Haselden concluded: ‘The development link will always be there to bring through public services but it’s about scale in the future. ‘The London economy seems incredibly strong given the situation. We have very exciting approaches and one has to look at models such as this to evolve certain partnerships.’
As LGN went to press, 100 properties had been sold on the Mary Seacole site. Work on the new leisure centre has completed with an expected formal opening in due course. The library site is set to open early this year.
