Delivering a new town or garden community calls for a full suite of planning and design documents, from Vision Documents and Outline Planning Applications to Masterplan Frameworks and Design Codes. JTP has extensive experience preparing and delivering all of them, working with Homes England, master developers and land promoters to prepare Vision Documents, Planning Applications, Masterplan Frameworks and Design Codes that are deliverable and compelling to planning authorities.

Our Masterplan Frameworks establish the land use strategy, infrastructure phasing and placemaking vision that underpin a successful planning consent. Our Design Codes translate that vision into clear, understandable guidance, ensuring design quality and consistency are maintained across multiple housebuilders and delivery phases. This end-to-end capability means JTP can guide a new town or settlement from early-stage land promotion through to planning applications, giving clients a single trusted team across the entire planning process.

A sense of place is created by weaving social infrastructure, local heritage and people-focussed public spaces into the founding principles of a settlement. JTP adopts a Staged Placemaking approach – establishing key place assets, the landscape framework and character areas early. This is fundamental to the long-term success of any new settlement and ensures that the first phases of a new settlement feel like part of a coherent, well-designed community.

At Alconbury Weald, Huntingdon, an extensive analysis of ‘where to begin’ and how to make that vital first impression was undertaken. This resulted in a placemaking strategy growing the community from a new gateway, addressing the vastness and bringing intimacy, enclosure and human-scale to the site. With limited natural assets, a sense of arrival was created through a landscaped drive flanked by large lime trees, across a causeway between two dipping ponds.

Sustainability is most effective when it is designed into a new settlement from the outset. JTP integrates sustainability concepts from day one. Green and blue infrastructure is designed as part of the masterplan framework – creating open space networks that deliver biodiversity net gain, connect to the wider landscape and shape the character of the new community.

We design to minimise carbon across both buildings and infrastructure. Our ‘skinny streets’ strategy reduces hard surfacing, lower construction costs and creates more development area to establish a more walkable neighbourhoods. Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) are treated as multifunctional landscape assets. These assets manage water drainage, enhance biodiversity and create attractive public spaces. This approach delivers biodiversity and reduces embodied carbon.

At Bailrigg Garden Village, Lancaster JTP’s landscape-led masterplan designated over 69% of the site for green infrastructure, including grazing land, woodlands, ponds and parks providing valuable ecological habitats.

Infrastructure delivery and viability are critical to the deliverability of new settlements. At JTP, we work closely with transport, utility and financial consultants to ensure our masterplans are grounded in a realistic understanding of infrastructure costs and phasing. We also bring expertise in land use schedules and their metrics – understanding how the mix of uses, densities and land allocations affect both the planning and the financial viability of the project.

JTP has unrivalled experience in delivering new settlements, from large-scale garden communities and new towns to urban extensions. We understand the full complexity of this type of project – the planning policy context, infrastructure requirements, land assembly challenges, community engagement processes and Design Codes needed to guide long-term delivery. Our track record with Homes England, master developers and land promoters demonstrates our ability to deliver new towns and garden communities. Our extensive portfolio includes several renowned and high-profile projects including Chelmsford Garden Village, Chelmsford; Alconbury Weald, Huntingdon; Houlton, Rugby; and Milton Keynes East for clients such as Urban&Civic and LIH.