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When we talk about cultural placemaking and place-based development, it’s easy to assume this is about rebuilding, re-imagining or regenerating existing towns and cities. But with the government now committed to a new generation of new towns, Five10Twelve has been talking with Northstowe Arts about how this presents a different set of challenges when building from a completely blank slate.

It should come as no surprise to hear that developing strong partnerships is a crucial part of the picture, since this is fundamental to any place-based development in long-established places. What may be more surprising is just how much can be learned about developing a partnership mindset by thinking like a new town.

The partnership mindset

A good partnership is based on a few basic principles:

We are united by a shared vision
We need each other to succeed
Our strength lies in shared values
Everyone should benefit

Let’s call this the partnership mindset.

In place-based projects, this should be straightforward. The shared vision is often expressed as making a better place to live, work, study and visit, (and it should always be in that order). This is such a huge, complex and long-term goal that it cannot be achieved without a partnership mindset.

But what’s in it for me?

Established places have history – and a lot of it – which can also mean a lot of firmly embedded stakeholders, sometimes with competing interests, established patterns of working, entrenched positions, egos, cliques, gatekeepers… all of which are anathema to partnership working and place development.

Partnerships – like friendships – also become way more complicated when money or significant amounts of funding is involved, as it invariably is. (Don’t get me started on the many, many problems with competitive placemaking.)

Through Five10Twelve’s work across England – particularly through the Cultural Development Fund (CDF) Network – we have seen firsthand how successful place partnerships put themselves in the best position to grow and thrive by breaking past such barriers and working in genuinely collaborative ways.

If you don’t lose sight of the core shared vision, then this flows naturally into that same vision expressed and delivered as a shared benefit: a better place to live, work, study and visit. Everyone wins.

Community-driven partnerships

People often think of partnerships as something large organisations do – local authorities, Mayoral Combined Authorities, arm’s length bodies, NPOs, major corporates, universities, network associations.

If they’re lucky, smaller groups and individuals might be invited to join in. But for those living and working in new towns, developing a partnership mindset isn’t something that someone else should organise and it’s not something you can afford to hang around and wait for. It’s more urgent and existential than that.

As Mari O’Neill, one of three founding directors of Northstowe Arts, explains: “Almost everything we do is in collaboration with others. Out of necessity – the almost total lack of built community infrastructure – groups, organisations and businesses led by people living in Northstowe and the surrounding area are energetic and actively want to work together: we’re a really strong network.”

‘Healthy new town’

Northstowe, near Cambridge, is Britain’s largest new town under development. Today, it has 1,450 homes, with its first residents having moved in 2017, a recent government commitment to develop a new town centre and a further 3,000 homes and a longer term ambition to house 25,000 residents in 10,000 homes by 2040.

Northstowe Arts was born out of a recognition that arts, culture and creativity can play a significant part in building community and fulfilling ambitions to develop Northstowe as a ‘healthy new town’.

It was also born from a frustration that while developers, local authorities and government may – by necessity – think of this in terms of a 10-30-year objective, the need to build a great place to live is a lot more immediate for resident communities.

“We’re absolutely passionate about delivering activity for people living here right now”, says Mari. “So much of the narrative coming from developers is focused on the future in Northstowe – hugely frustrating for those who have been living here for seven years”.

Show don’t tell

With data increasingly driving decisions at both local and national government level, new towns have a particular challenge. Northstowe’s entire community had only been in situ for less than four years at the time of the last census, so longitudinal data simply doesn’t exist.

To help fill this data gap, the community is regularly invited to consultations and frequently asked to complete surveys. Fatigue quickly sets in, compounded by the sense that long term delivery plans start to feel like the vague hope of a carrot dangling on a very long stick.

Northstowe Arts saw the importance of actually demonstrating that community-led development and creative, ongoing engagement were key, rather than just asking for it to happen in endless surveys and consultations.

Its first activity, Northstowe Winter Festival, was delivered through an unconstituted voluntary group and on a shoestring budget, with some funding secured from a county council youth pot. From this initial activation, Mari and her fellow volunteers were able to deliver a listings site and promotional campaign to make it easier for residents to find events and activities.

Developing and solidifying partnerships

The Winter Festival demonstrated there was demand for such activities and the organising group was capable of delivering them. This did not escape the attention of Cambridgeshire County Council or of Homes England – the government’s housing and regeneration agency at the heart of the Northstowe development.

With the County Council’s reallocation of some Section 106 funding, Northstowe Arts was officially constituted as a Community Interest Company and Homes England started match-funding further projects.

This is a significant illustration of a positive place-based partnership mindset for two reasons. First, having moved from a voluntary group to an officially constituted body, Northstowe Arts now had a formal governance structure to give reassurance to Homes England and other funders that allows them to bid for more funding. It gave solidity and structure to the partners who formed the organisation and for those who seek to partner with it.

There’s a lot to be said for formalising a partnership – whether through contracts, MOUs or company constitutions. These can help capture and solidify those shared values, the shared vision, roles and responsibilities of the partners, expected outcomes for beneficiaries and who those beneficiaries are or should be.

Secondly, partnering with developers and tapping into a developer’s community-focused funding stream is common practice in cultural placemaking schemes in the US, but remains woefully underused here in the UK. Partly this is because it’s not always easy to access this type of funding, which includes Section 106 or the Community Infrastructure Levy. Arts Council England has some useful guides that are a good place to start.

Structured growth

Since establishing its formal governance structure, Northstowe Arts has continued to be open and creative in seeking out new partnerships and remains keenly aware of how vital this partnership mindset is in unlocking further growth and activity. All of this is focused on that vision of making Northstowe a better place to live, work, study and visit.

It’s a vision shared by some of the partners they have already worked with – including Homes England, National Lottery Heritage Fund and the NHS. Shared visions, shared values, shared benefits.

And what of that other part of the partnership mindset – recognising that we need each other to succeed?

Size doesn’t matter and all partners are created equal. Northstowe Arts – as any smaller partner should – knows that they are more than just a delivery vehicle for their bigger, more established partners. If it is going to truly succeed, a new town place partnership – like any other place partnership – knows there is nothing more important than delivering to the needs of the community it serves.

“We’re building a community from scratch, but that’s not the whole story,” says Mari. “This is a community who are ‘consulted’ but for whom every other physical thing here is built for them. This is an opportunity for us to feel a sense of ownership and creatorship of something in our landscape.”

Jason Jones-Hall is Director of Development at Five10Twelve.
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Jason Jones-Hall