NEGC Ltd, which was set up by Braintree District Council, Colchester City Council, Tendring District Council, and Essex County Council, was a great example of partnership working across geographic boundaries and political lines with a shared ambition to improve housing and infrastructure for residents and businesses.

The Councils came together to submit a joint Section One Local Plan with proposals for three Garden Communities across North Essex amounting to 43,000 new homes, providing housing and economic growth for future generations.

Following an examination in public, on 15 May 2020 the councils received the Planning Inspector’s letter concluding that the Braintree/Colchester borders Garden Community and the West of Braintree Garden Community were not viable and therefore not deliverable.  The Inspector did agree, however, that the Tendring/Colchester borders Garden Community was viable and deliverable.

NEGC Ltd was never set up to be the actual delivery vehicle for the proposed Garden Communities. On 31 August 2020, following agreement from all four shareholder councils, the company ceased trading to enable the new arrangements to be put in place to deliver the Tendring/Colchester borders Garden Community.

During its years of operation NEGC Ltd co-ordinated the vital groundwork needed for a project unmatched in terms of scale and ambition in the UK, against a background of the Government’s Garden Communities Programme.

NEGC Ltd supported the Councils with successfully securing £3.76m in grant funding from Government for the North Essex Garden Communities project and supported the Councils in their successful A120/A133 Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) Bid. They also provided design input into the approved link road and Rapid Transit System for the Tendring/Colchester borders Garden Community.

NEGC Ltd built a positive relationship and undertook work with Homes England to develop a long-term infrastructure fund to support the delivery of large mixed-use sites, including Garden Communities, across the whole country. 

The foundation work on key Garden Community principles, such as Stewardship, along with key master planning and preparatory work meant that the work undertaken put the Tendring/Colchester borders Garden Community in a strong position to progress efficiently.

NEGC Ltd also provided input to the North Essex Economic Board as it developed the North Essex Economic Strategy and helped to represent and promote the area to investors at MIPIM UK.