Leading developer, Crest Nicholson, along with the Hyde Group, is developing the Oakgrove Millennium Community in Milton Keynes. For the first time it has agreed to adopt a commonhold structure for people buying properties on the site. News on the Block reports on this ground-breaking new development and Prof. James Driscoll gives his perspective.
With the decision to develop Oakgrove Millennium Community as a commonhold, Crest Nicholson has become the first volume house builder to use this structure in one of its projects, and the deal will result in the first major commonhold project in England and Wales. This will be a new way for people to buy homes.
Part of the reason for this move into commonhold was the challenge set by the owners of the site, ODPM and English Partnerships. They stipulated that the developer of the site needed to provide information and communication technology services to individual homes, and to create a viable, sustainable management organisation for the new neighbourhood and the ICT infrastructure.
An appropriate vehicle had to be found to manage a variety of activities and collect estate management, service charges and ICT payments for the whole community. Hyde Housing Association had developed ‘Hyde in Practice’, a proposal for the creation of sustainable management organisations, and Crest Nicholson had initially planned to use a traditional leasehold/freehold structure on the site. However, Crest’s experience at Park Central in Birmingham of creating a management framework under the Leasehold Acts, indicated the need for a different vehicle for Oakgrove. With this and the requirements of ODPM and English Partnerships in mind, commonhold tenure offered the best solution.
Christ Tinker, Managing Director of Crest Nicholson Projects, says that: “The significant challenge was how to respond to the need for socio-economic and environmental sustainability, and how to create a robust and flexible vehicle to support and manage the post development community established at Oakgrove. The development will set new benchmarks for both physical and social sustainability and will also establish new standards by which residents can influence and control their future living environment.”
Crest Nicholson was selected as Lead Development Partner following an OJEU Tender process conducted in 2004. Throughout the competition process, Crest Nicholson demonstrated an exceptionally high standard of design and master planning of the development, as well as a good approach to project and development management.
When completed, Oakgrove Millennium Community will provide 2,300 homes, 30% of which will provide affordable housing. The 64-hectare development will also include two new schools, a landscaped wildlife corridor, a multipurpose health centre, shops, and a commercial centre. The site was previously used for sand and gravel extraction, and most recently for landfill. The scheme aims to be a pioneering example of best practice, flexible enough to anticipate and accommodate future changes in demographics, social, economic and technological factors.
The commonhold structure
Using the new commonhold system, which was introduced in September 2004, the purchasers of flats and houses in the development will buy a freehold commonhold title. The commonhold units can be bought or sold in the same way as freehold property, but a commonhold community statement (CCS) will regulate the day-to-day use of the units and the common parts. This statement will be registered against the title to each unit, and to the common parts. Among other things, the CCS will set out the contribution to costs of each unit, local rules concerning for example car parking, the use of communal facilities and alterations to units, and the voting rights attached to ownership.
The development will be divided into areas, each of which will have its own CCS. The common parts in each area will be owned by the CCS, but the purchasers of flats and houses will not pay an ongoing ground rent. Although the owners of the units will ultimately have control of the management of the property, the day-to-day estate management services and the administration of each commonhold association will be the responsibility of the Oakgrove Sustainable Management Organisation (OSMO), which is a subsidiary of Hyde Housing Association, Crest nicholson’s selected registered social landlord partner.
A key theme of the Oakgrove scheme is the provision of ICT services to individual homes. The successful delivery of Community ICT will depend on the ability of OSMO to set, collect, and receive payment for the variety of services and activities envisaged at the site, which could not be achieved under the existing Leasehold framework.
Chris Tinker says: “Commonhold is sufficiently robust to implement a long term management framework that will successfully regulate the diverse features inherent in the Oakgrove Millennium Community and benefit the new community. Commonhold empowers residents, enabling them to have a say in how their neighbourhood is managed into the future. Crest is aware that the legislation could benefit from further amendments if it is to become the tenure of choice for the 21st century and supports the work of those who are encouraging those changes. In the meantime we believe that Oakgrove is an ideal development upon which to demonstrate to the industry that Commonhold is a flexible and robust form of tenure for the future.”
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