Housing

The Housing

Early development from 1971 was frustrated by the Government's system for financing new housing which proved inappropriate for the Milton Keynes situation. Also simultaneous growth in housing development in London meant that many construction companies refused to tender for work in Milton Keynes. This represented a serious situation for the Milton Keynes planners who were tasked to create up to 4000 new houses per annum.

To overcome these difficulties the MKDC were forced to adopt a system of timber-frame clad in aluminium on the very early housing estates. Despite early difficulties some very interesting innovations in housing were achieved in the 1970s:

• Pennyland: layout of housing to achieve passive solar gains

• Eaglestone: separation of traffic from housing

• Neath Hill: traditional streetscape, interesting use of landscape and road design and mix of housing tenure
• Great Linford: integration of old and new and different housing tenure, notable layouts such as Kindleton and France Furlong

Throughout the seventies 70% of new housing was rented from the MKDC. The election of the Conservative Government in 1979 was quickly followed by a vast reduction in house building activity in the public sector. MKDC now moved to create a successful owner-occupied housing market in MK.

To highlight the flexibility and range of Milton Keynes housing, in 1981 the MKDC staged, Homeworld, a competition for architects and builders. The location of this competition was Coleshill Place, Bradwell Common. This was followed by Energy World another competition in 1986 at Shenley Lodge. The object this time was to

demonstrate energy efficiency and 50 houses were constructed for the event. Futureworld, the last of the design competitions took place in 1994 at Kents Hill and aimed to demonstrate housing ideas for third millenium.

Housing tenure in Milton Keynes now comprises 70% owner-occupied, 20% rented from the Milton Keynes council and 10% from housing associations. Around 2000 new dwellings are completed in Milton Keynes each year of which 70% are offered for sale.

As the growth of Milton Keynes is certain to continue consideration must be given to the location of new housing.

Issues to be considered are:

• Whether to maintain existing densities which would mean more new houses outside the original Milton Keynes boundary or designated area (current density is 27 dwellings per hectare)
• Higher local densities could improve the demand for public transport

• How much affordable housing - lower densities mean less scope for affordable housing

• As land outside the designated area is predominantly rural, careful consideration must be given to the location and servicing of new housing areas

The Economics

• Located on the M1, the A5, the London-Glasgow railway, the Grand Union canal
• Just under 8 million people within one hour's drive
• 22 million - nearly half the British population - within 2 hours drive
• One hours drive from London, Cambridge and Oxford and one hour fifteen minutes from Birmingham
• Close to London Heathrow and Luton airports
• 75% of the jobs are in the service sector (retail, education training, software and hardware design, banking, insurance and management consultancy).
• 22% of jobs in manufacturing
• over 500 foreign controlled companies
• Unemployment rate tends to be 2% less than the national average

Milton Keynes - the economics

• Between 1999 and 2006, the City's labour force is expected to increase in size by 20%. .
• Over 29% of the Milton Keynes workforce is classed as skilled, managerial or professional..
• Top employers (by numbers employed) include Abbey National, Argos, Milton Keynes Council, John Lewis, Open University, Royal Mail, Tesco Stores, Milton Keynes General Hospital. .
• 93% of employers have 39% of the employees in establishments of fewer than 50; 7% of employers have 61% of employees in establishments of over 50.

The People

• The Milton Keynes Borough's age profile is younger than that for England with a mean age of 35 years compared with England's mean of 39 years
• By 2006, the Milton Keynes mean age will be 36 compared with the rest of England which will have a mean of 40 years

• Milton Keynes has a relatively young age profile with 46% of the population aged under 30 compared with 41% nationally.

• Around 25% of the Milton Keynes population is under 18 years of age.
• Household size in the Milton Keynes urban area is 2.53 and in the Borough it is 2.55.
• Average household size in England is 2.36.
• More people move into Milton Keynes each year than move out - approximately 1890 more move in.

Future Changes in the Milton Keynes population

Milton Keynes - a regional leisure centre

Milton Keynes' location within a large populous region has attracted considerable investment in leisure:

• Milton Keynes Theatre (Plays, musicals, opera, classical, modern and popular music, dance)
• Xscape (Europe’s largest indoor ski-run and leisure complex - opened May 2000)
• The National Hockey stadium
• Gulliver’s Land (Theme park

• The National Badminton Centre

• The National Bowl (open-air auditorium noted for concerts of all types)
• The David Lloyd sports centre

Milton Keynes - a regional shopping centre

There are over 800 shops in the borough of Milton Keynes including 155 in the Central Milton Keynes shopping centre. When the Central Milton Keynes shopping centre opened in 1979 it was Europe's first USA style shopping mall (designed by Derek Walker and Stuart Mosscrop). The Central Milton Keynes shopping

centre currently has a weekly footfall (numbers of people coming through the door) of 600,000 which rises to 1 million at Christmas time. A new shopping centre, Midsummer Place, located beside the existing facility is due to open in Autumn 2000. The new centre will comprise 36000 square metres of internal floorspace of which Debenhams will occupy 12,200 square metres.

Frequently Asked Questions

How successful has Milton Keynes been?

To begin, this is a measurement question and the answer depends on the measuring device that you are using (e.g. growth rate, happiness factor, policy objectives). Judged simply in terms of homes and jobs created then Milton Keynes has been spectacularly successful. Judged in terms of the original policy objective of creating homes for those on London's housing waiting list then from 1980 onwards it ceased to be successful - after this date the majority of new homes were built for owner occupation.
We can also measure success in terms of the six objectives contained in the master plan:

Opportunity and Freedom of choice While the majority of residents would say that there is a wide range of opportunities and choice a significant minority are constrained in their choice of home, employment and lifestyle choice. This is because they lack the skills for a service economy, and/or are trapped on declining estates or lack private transport.

Easy Movement Great for the motorist but not so good if you do not have a car and 25% of households do not have a car. Because of the decentralised nature of Milton Keynes effective public transport has proven difficult to organise.

An Attractive City In the opinion of the thousands of overseas visitors who flock to MK each year and the residents who live here, MK is an attractive city. However, amongst the British people it is rarely celebrated yet many of the most biting criticisms come from people who have spent little time here or have never even visited the place. This is a vast subject but in the end you reach a conclusion that urban attractiveness is a cultural matter and for all sorts of reasons the appearance of MK does not conform with the cultural norm of a British city. The emergence of the New Urbanism in the USA has prompted some to compare MK with the symptoms of urban sprawl in the American suburbs. In fact, MK’s grid road system has proven to be robust defence against urban sprawl.

Quality of life Yet any concept of urban attractiveness must include quality of life and it is here that MK scores over most other urban locations in the SE of England.

Public Awareness and Participation Public participation and involvement is emerging as one of the key characteristics of MK life.

Efficient and Imaginative Use of Resources MK recycles 30% of household waste; there have been many experiments in energy efficient housing (see article attached); the promotion of biodiversity is a key part of parks and water course management; the MKC employs a co-ordinator for sustainable development; the flood management system can withstand all but the most infrequent storms; MK has one of the longest and diverse urban cycleway systems in Britain. The issue of transport is taken up in a separate article.

Why is it called Milton Keynes?

Named after the smallest of thirteen medieval villages which were enclosed by the new town boundary in 1967. The name Milton is derived from the Anglo Saxon "Middle Tun" meaning middle farm, which probably refers to the location between Broughton and Walton. The Keynes bit derives from the fact that the estate was once owned by the de Cahaigne family (circa 1166). Over time, the name became Keens and then Keynes. A wide range of themes have been used in the name of places and roads within Milton Keynes including:

• Natural history (eg Beanhill and Walnut Tree)
• Work (eg Neath Hill, old crafts and trades, and Wymbush, printing)
• Recreation (eg Blue Bridge, the game of bridge, and Crownhill, singers, actors and film stars)
• Locations in Britain (eg Downhead Park, the Cotswold and Kents Hill, in Kent)