You can’t build a community with just bricks and mortar. It’s defined by everything we do in and out of our homes, from learning to working, leisure to healthcare.

As well as suitable homes and essential infrastructure, it requires better public spaces, from town squares to community hubs. Ultimately, a great community is driven by the people who live there, so building homes that suit different life stages, tenures and budgets leads to more diverse, inclusive populations.

Most of us instinctively know what a good community looks like. Your ideal place might include great transport links, schools and healthcare facilities, for example. Maybe it also includes parks and community spaces with multi-tenure, energy-efficient housing – all at an affordable price.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Lots of these things are already considered when planning housing developments. Central government, local government, and builders look at the capacity of existing public transport services and infrastructure, such as cycle, walking, and road networks, for example.

We have methods to determine the increased demand for healthcare and school places based on the health profile of a local area and the type of homes being built. Biodiversity Net Gain rules ensure that habitats for wildlife are left in a better state. And planning requirements determine the proportion of a development that is affordable.

But all of these rules still don’t create a community.

On top of the regulations, ‘placemaking’ is the process of involving communities in working out what good design means to them.

Done well, it can empower people to have a sense of belonging and pride in their local area, giving them a say in their parks, neighbourhoods and public spaces.

The Green Quarter in London is a good example of placemaking in action. This development of up to 4,000 new homes emphasises community living, featuring a primary school, community hub, café, organic store and extensive green spaces, including two new parks, wetlands, landscaped gardens as well as improved transport connections. Sustainability is central to the development’s design, incorporating eco-friendly features and aiming to become one of London’s most biodiverse neighbourhoods, enhancing the quality of life for all residents.

But The Green Quarter reflects best practice, not the norm, because the ideal community environment doesn’t match the realities of modern homebuilding.

We don’t live in a utopia and rules meant to protect the natural habitat can have unintended consequences, such as holding up planning applications and bumping up build costs.

And if it wasn’t enough of a challenge to build homes at scale, make them affordable and ensure the infrastructure and design support communities, this also needs to be done sustainably to tackle climate change

The government has already announced a range of measures to increase the supply of homes, as we explained in How the housing landscape is set to shift. Some of them also support placemaking, so that we build better communities not just more properties.

Reform of the planning system is designed to unlock homebuilding, as well as ensuring we build the infrastructure to support new homes. The government unveiled its landmark Planning and Infrastructure Bill in March, which aims to simplify planning processes, remove bureaucratic hurdles and unlock billions in economic growth.

The Bill contains a host of measures, from a National Scheme of Delegation and Planning Committees that will speed up decision making to a Nature Restoration Fund and reform of Compulsory Purchases. A faster National Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime that delivers infrastructure projects faster with fewer opportunities for challenges was also announced alongside energy bill discounts for those living near new infrastructure, such as pylons.

The creation of a programme of building New Towns with a new independent taskforce is another example of policy that underpins placemaking. Plus, the government has set an expectation that local authorities consider the needs of those requiring Social Rent as part of broader affordable housing policies.

It also wants to promote mixed tenure communities, including build to rent, housing designed for older people, student accommodation, and plots sold for custom or self-build.

The proposed planning reforms strengthen support for community-led housing too, by expanding its definition to include non-housing groups and removing size limits for exception sites defined in local plans.

And it’s not just the government focusing on this.

Developers include green spaces and playparks in new developments, for example, as well as already building energy-efficient homes that often meet the proposed  Future Homes Standard before it’s in place.

Lenders are supporting demand for homes with innovative mortgages including high loan-to-value and high loan-to-income lending, such as Halifax’s First-Time Buyer Boost, or through comprehensive product options and mortgages to support shared ownership.

As part of Lloyds Banking Group, we also work closely with developers and housing associations to fund homebuilding, including social housing, as well as having our own large private landlord, Lloyds Living.

It is possible to build more homes and create safe, thriving communities with the infrastructure in place to serve those who live there.

By ensuring that the essentials, such as GPs, bus routes and school places, are in place, and consulting with local communities about what they want, we can go beyond the numbers to build better places to live in.

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