Special Report - Hounslow

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hello I'm Toby Fox from 1.5 million new

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homes the local government challenge

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sponsored by Red Loft and Hadley

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Property Group so the government wants

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one and a half million new homes built

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and the key delivery arm for that

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National ambition is local government

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either as the planning Authority giving

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permission for new homes to be built or

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as the partner in a joint venture with

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the private sector or directly

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delivering new homes themselves so I'm

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visiting a different Council every month

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to understand what works and What needs

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to change for councils to deliver more

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homes one of the big issues facing

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councils is enabling communities to feel

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that they've got an ability to shape the

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future of their place and involvement in

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the housing that's being delivered so

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I'm here in houndslow this month and

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I've come to the G SK site the old

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pharmaceutical Works uh in houndslow

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it's a huge empty office site that

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Hadley Property Group are going to

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redevelop and I'm here with Matt

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Griffith's rimmer and Mabel ogendo to

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understand how they've got the community

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involved in the future of this

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particular place um Matt do you want to

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tell us a little bit about where we are

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and what this site is and what the

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potential is sure Toby yeah uh thanks

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very much for having us on we are as you

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might be able to just hear in the

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background on the Great West Road in

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brenford and behind us is the former GSK

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building um so formerly uh a global

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pharmaceutical headquarters soon to be a

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thousand plus homes and a range of other

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uses including Parkside living Riverside

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activation all sorts really we're just

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kind of uh we're in the early stages of

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Master planning but very exciting

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project and how have you gone about um

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getting the community engaged in this

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project I think to be honest you can't

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do it without really applying quite a

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

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something that we pride ourselves on at

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Hadley and we have quite a large

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in-house comms team so that we can

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manage this ourselves a lot of the time

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you find that you work with agencies but

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they're not quite they can't really tell

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your story the way that you need your

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story to be told so we spend a lot of

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time with local communities we spend a

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lot of time doing social value work and

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Outreach but also in terms of what we

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present we kind of go over overboard

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rather than holding back information

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what sort of resistance do you find from

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the community in hlo particularly and

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perhaps communities more generally in

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developments that you're involved with

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to those developments how how how do

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communities react when when when you're

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involved in a development so you're very

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used to as a developer going into a room

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on the back foot because there's very

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little trust in in our industry and in a

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lot of circumstances that's perfectly

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Justified and correct so if you go in

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early and you try and work from a

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position of good faith then you can hope

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I mean these are long processes and so

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building trust is never going to take 5

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minutes but at the same time if you've

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been dedicating enough time and resource

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and you are you speak with Integrity

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then I think you can kind of get there

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houndslow it's pretty early doors and we

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haven't really felt a lot of push back

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yet we we probably will but that that's

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just speaking from experience working in

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London development elsewhere people very

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suspicious of your motives people are

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very suspicious of the council's motives

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so you can talk about affordable housing

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but then the conversation switches to

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what's really affordable so then you get

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into a conversation about shared

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ownership and so there are broader

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societal issues that mean that people

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are distrustful of the property industry

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in general but like I said developers

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have not made this easy for themselves

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either what's your view of this place

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Matt in the future if you look 10 15

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years down the line what is this place

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going to be like this is super exciting

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this is the most probably the most

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high-profile scheme that I've been

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involved in um so this campus is a 14

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Acre Site um road to the South we've got

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other roads there and then we've got

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Park and water all on those edges but

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it's been completely closed off for the

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last 20 years so just understandably an

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HQ for a for a farmer company doesn't

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want anyone walking through but we do so

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what we want to do is get the fences

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down try and create routs through try

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and open this up Boston Mana Park's an

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incredible resource and it's just a two-

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minute walk that way but it's not really

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that accessible to the southern side of

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the Great West Road so I see this being

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a very inclusive new neighborhood

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massive range of tenures so um

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affordable housing for sale housing

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built a rent housing probably some

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student accommodation as well we're

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trying to mix it all up and trying

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trying to make it as intergenerational a

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place for people to stay rather than a

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kind of transient community so may where

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does your understanding of getting

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communities involved in development come

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from well I guess it's basically um

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living in an area like tmid where

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there's been a lot of Redevelopment

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happening over the years it's given me

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the opportunity to really understand how

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important it is that local communities

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are involved in what happens in their

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areas and they feel a part of whatever

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comes forward that's new as well and how

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are you applying that knowledge to the

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development here GSK site in hsow so I

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guess what it is is we do a lot of

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Community engagement we go out to where

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the communities already are if there's a

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there's a market happening we'll attend

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the market if there's a community

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meeting we'll attend that we'll do

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Street surveys anyway to kind of get

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into the community and really meet the

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individuals that are going to be present

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once once the new development is brought

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forward and how much time and effort are

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

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amount of time it's a good amount of

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time I would say you know it's been

5:54

really great so far getting to know the

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people of brenford because there are so

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many communities within this one

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Community um and so I've been to so many

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community events we've done I said it

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already but we've done markets and all

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the rest things like that and also we're

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doing outside of the traditional

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consultation we're also doing code

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design to really understand what the

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community really wants from this do you

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want to unpack code design a bit why is

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that different from just cons

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consultation yeah sure so code design

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really gets into the nitty-gritty of

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what the community want um what they

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really really need so what we started by

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doing Street surveys to kind of find out

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outside of the built form of the

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buildings what else what are your key

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areas of interest and we found six key

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

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appointed uh neighborly Labs who are

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engagement Specialists and Metropolitan

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workshops who are Architects to work

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together to undertake six um codesign

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sessions which are small groups of 10 or

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so people who have registered their

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interest in these particular topics do

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you want to tell us a few of those

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themes that people are really interested

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in yeah sure so accessibility uh places

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for women and girls spaces for women and

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girls green and blue play spaces and uh

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commercial uses are some of the key

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areas of the codesign so pick one of

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those and explain how that might be

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pulled into the design the redesign of

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this incredible kind of headquarters

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that's being completely repurposed one

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of the sessions that I really enjoyed

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was the uh young people session so I

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think it's really important that young

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people get involved in what's happening

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in their communities because as they

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come forward over the years they will

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have the most access to it and it's been

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really really good session because

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they've had some amazing ideas about

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what matters to their communities so

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it's um talking about intergenerational

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play talking about how they can engage

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with older Generations Within These

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spaces has been really important for

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them but also the facilities that are

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available so maybe it's a podcast

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Studios that they would like to see

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coming forward or it would like they

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would also like to see some food and uh

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retail options that would entice them

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affordability divers City and the

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options um really important ideas and I

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was like really Blown Away in a positive

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way by the options that they brought

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forward in that session can you describe

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any of those yeah so um somebody

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suggested one of the young people was

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really big on having an Hala Food Market

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um because they said that going to

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school they had friends from different

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ethnicities who would they want to make

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sure that they would be able to eat with

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them in the same spaces uh they talked

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about um book spaces outdoor book spaces

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so that they could sit and read books

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with their friends but also older people

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would give them the opportunity to

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engage with older people so they don't

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look like such a threat when they're

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hanging out in big groups as well so

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some of those ideas have been really

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really good and what happens to those

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ideas now that you've got them how does

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that feed into what actually takes place

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here in this place yeah so as well as

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neighborly labs and metworks uh helping

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us uh facilitate those sessions we had

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the Architects join some of those

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sessions but now we're as a project team

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we're all going to come together and

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review all the feedback that we've

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received and have some serious

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conversations about the ideas that have

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come forward and how we can make sure

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that they are Incorporated and how we

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feed that back to not just those that

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participated but everyone in the wider

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Community as well fantastic thank you

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very much indeed thank you now I'm here

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with Tom Conan from Red Loft to dig a

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little bit deeper into this issue of

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engaging communities in the development

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of new homes Tom um it's not quite as

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simple as it seems is it or is it a

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no-brainer that we need to get people

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more involved in shaping their

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places thanks say I mean think you're

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absolutely right we we of course we need

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to engage communities in shaping

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community in shaping development and

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good development will always include a a

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proper full wholesome engagement process

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where you're listening to to to views

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you listen to a multitude of views and

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that process must and does improve

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improve proposals it improves improv

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schemes that come forward then to to to

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planning committees um one of the areas

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though where I feel the industry can

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sometimes be you know could be more

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robust is absolutely we need to listen

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to to our views but if you've got

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schemes where um working on on a a

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moment we've had about thousand

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responses um and amongst you can imagine

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those thousand responses there's a full

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spectrum of of views and it's

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identifying actually that those with the

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loudest voices do not necessarily

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represent the kind of the broad the

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

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okay to say yes we've listened and you

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must listen but you can conclude that

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through that

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listening the the direction you take um

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won't please everybody but that's okay

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you can justify that you can you can

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support that through through through

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other views other evidence and that's

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okay and it's okay to be that position

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and that robustness is needed to enable

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us to kind of continue to develop and

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continue develop in a sustainable um in

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a sustainable way so how are you making

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that decision that it's okay is it okay

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because you are listening to the

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majority and it's only a minority that

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

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because the voices that you're hearing

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are the ones that are agreeing with what

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you already want to do yeah I wouldn't I

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wouldn't say the word ignoring because I

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think say you we're absolutely listening

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um but it might be that is the case some

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of the the the points of opposition um

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that actually the facts don't don't

11:23

support it or or there's been and

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perhaps the communication about the

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proposals haven't been necessarily

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interpreted in to interpret it correctly

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

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to those those views but also setting

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out um actually um there's you know

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there's there's you've interpreted this

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as as X um but actually we're not

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proposing X we are proposing Y and it's

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about our communication to get that to

11:47

get that to get to get that across so

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it's about misunderstandings sometimes

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about misunderstandings um sometimes

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though is you know not everybody wants

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development on their on their back door

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

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

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million homes um it doesn't mean that's

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the that's the that's the overarching

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overriding view um so it's at times you

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have to say no we need these homes we

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need these developments this is for the

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kind of wider societal benefit um and

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and on this occasion um we take we take

12:21

we note your view but it's right that we

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continue um with with with with what

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we've proposed Tom conin from redoff

12:28

thank you very much so continuing the

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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

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heard a lot about how the community has

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been involved in shaping what the GSK

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site is going to become um what's your

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take on that so to start with I've been

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really impressed with how hadle have

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come in to the borrow working uh across

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a range of uh communities with the

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Council directly with counselors uh Ward

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counselors residents just involving

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themselves in what matters to the borrow

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and what matters to the community but

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really getting a sense of what the site

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what the um positive aspects of the site

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currently are what things need to be

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changed and how it can be seen in the

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future I think one of the Fantastic uh

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elements to this was that one of my

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first conversations with them is was

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about the Great West Road I'm really

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clear that I see the Great West Road in

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some ways as a bit of a barrier between

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the South and the north sections of that

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area and anyone who wants to come into

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that area looking at ways of of creating

13:40

more permeability they were very on

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board with that and in fact took it

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further and said well it's not just

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about the Great West Road it's about our

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whole site and into the park at the back

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so really even early on they knew what

13:52

was needed in that area they could see

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just by the site develop by the site

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itself and then they've developed that

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um and and widen that out working with

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the council working with communities and

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listening to to what local people want

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and how that would support um people

14:07

living you know the best life in that

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area whether it's on the site itself

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when houses are there or whether it's

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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

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generous I it's mixed I think some

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developers take a bit of encouragement

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to look at look at things in that way

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there are lots of uh developers who are

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very good at doing that sort of thing so

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I wouldn't say it's Unique but they

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certainly didn't need any encouragement

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uh Hadley to get involved in the local

14:38

community to have conversations with us

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at all levels in the council and to try

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and demonstrate you know they were here

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not just to plunk a load of boxes on a

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site but they wanted to create a place

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and a community it's incredibly

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important to me it's incredibly

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important to this Council and they are

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showing currently that it's very

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important to to them as well Castle

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Bruce thank you very much you so that

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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

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And subscribe if you did and we'll look

15:17

forward to seeing you next time thank

15:19

you