• Infrastructure

Infrastructure is vital to successful development and connecting schemes with their local area through shared facilities and transport links. We develop physical infrastructure (roads, sewers and utilities) that allows our developments to function day to day for our customers.

We understand that the effect of any development is not confined to the site and, because of this, much of the infrastructure we provide is outside of the site, improving the local area and making sure that our schemes are a positive addition to the local environment. Often, we carry out work on the highways outside of the site, for example upgrading and improving junctions, providing new roads or widening the existing ones, and adding or improving cycle routes. Our Augusta Park development will include approximately £45 million of improvements outside of the site, while our site at Cranbrook in Devon will provide for extensive off-site infrastructure to a value of approximately £7 million, including a new bypass for the village of Clyst Honiton and improvements to junction 29 of the M5 motorway. These are not unusual levels of investment across our larger schemes.

• Community

We also provide community infrastructure (schools, community centres, playgrounds, public art and parks), which transform our developments into working communities. We either develop this infrastructure ourselves, or through contributions to the local authority. In 2010, we invested £92 million into the areas where we built, as part of Local Authority Planning Agreements (including Section 106 and Section 75 Agreements). This investment contributed to both infrastructure and affordable housing.

We aim to improve public transport links, where appropriate, and make sure our teams consider green transport solutions at an early stage. In 2010, we contributed over £3.7 million to the development of public transport, including the purchase of new buses.

We provide public art on many developments, commissioning local artists and often involving the community in the choice of design and location. An example is the ‘Leaf Barrier’ sculpture at The Parks in Bracknell, which is designed to act as a gateway, linking the streets and homes of the scheme with a new area of parkland, while also preventing vehicles from accessing the green space.

• Landscape and Biodiversity

Well-designed and usable landscaping and open space is important in creating a thriving development, providing a more attractive setting for homes as well as encouraging a range of local plants and wildlife and creating leisure space for local people.

We are committed to providing green networks (landscaped footpaths, cycleways, hedgerows and trees alongside more significant areas of open space) through our schemes, and developments such as Cambourne in Cambridgeshire demonstrate our ability to provide high-quality landscaping. One of Cambourne's main strengths is its ‘green infrastructure’ – the whole range and quality of the open space it provides. The scheme won a Landscape Design Award in 2010. 

We provide areas of open space on many sites, either formal or informal. This includes everything from village greens to football pitches and playgrounds. We build a range of facilities to support this open space including pavilions, community centres and leisure centres.

• Infrastructure

We understand that new developments can put a strain on local schools and educational facilities, and we often contribute funding to both primary and secondary schools to limit this impact.

In 2010, we made contributions to local education across the UK worth over £25.5 million. A £10 million community and learning campus that we partly funded opened at one of our developments, The Bridge in Dartford, during 2010. The campus includes a primary school, nursery, health-care and social services facilities, a sports hall, a sensory garden, youth and adult education centres and a community room.