Community-driven design

Local people are our most important development partners as we work to deliver up to 56,000 homes and over 9 million square feet of commercial space in our strategic development pipeline. Here, Community Partnerships Manager Hannah Patrick explains why she’s passionate about working with them to create value for people and places.

Tell us about your role

I work in the Urban business as the Community Partnerships Manager. We’ve really stepped up how we engage with people and places in the past few years, whether that’s looking at data on skills and innovation gaps in Cambridge, or working with communities on our masterplans for developments in East Hemel (Hertfordshire), Luton (Bedfordshire) and Feering (Essex).

What drives you to do this work?

The opportunity The Crown Estate has to make a difference. I grew up in Luton during a time of unrest and riots, and a lot of my friends were engaged in criminal activity. I had my son at 19 and built my career while caring for him and my daughter. My background has made me passionate about improving life chances, and I’ve co-founded a not-for-profit that helps steer individuals away from criminal activity by developing skills and purpose.

How is The Crown Estate engaging communities?

Thinking about East Hemel, we connected with local people through digital engagement, site visits, drop-in events, school sessions and a two-day community design workshop. The workshop produced a concept masterplan for our development – which includes up to 4,000 high-quality new homes, as well as 1.8 million sq ft of commercial space, health and community facilities, new schools and transport links, and a country park as part of the wider Hemel Garden Communities regeneration project.

Does that engagement drive fresh thinking? Absolutely. For our demonstration project at Westwick Row, we worked with three panels of people at different life stages to co-create a masterplan to deliver 80 homes that suit scenarios like house-sharing, downsizing and intergenerational living.

How can The Crown Estate maximise its social impact? There’s a real opportunity for us to become change-makers through projects like Cambridge Business Park, where we plan to deliver more than a million square feet of office and lab space for innovative businesses, as well as a residential, leisure and cultural offering. It’s the first part of a much wider redevelopment with a 40-year plan to create new innovation district in North East Cambridge. We’ve consulted local people and started to work with other local stakeholders to create a skills and employment strategy aimed at tackling inequality. It’s really exciting!