Area development is about more than just coming up with a house or a row of houses, says Helma Born, who has just taken over as new managing director of BPD in the Netherlands.

BPD, a founding member of the Holland Metropole alliance, has been responsible for the development of almost 400,000 homes since it was founded in 1946. The company still focuses on providing sustainable, affordable housing across the country but with a wider focus, on creating neighbourhoods where people will want to live and work.

“Area development is more about determining what makes a neighbourhood a good one for people to live in, and what services are needed,” Helma says. “It’s about how people will get to the area and about healthy living. It’s about making sure there are places to enjoy the outdoors in.”

Public private partnerships, she says, are the key to achieving this. “We work with other private sector companies and local authorities on multi-year projects and you have to do it together,” she says. “It is essential. Local authorities draw up the policies and say if a project can be realized and are also responsible for making sure it fits in with what is already there. Working together is crucial. Without it, things will not go well.”

The Dutch emphasis on public private alliances may partly be down to the long-established tradition of working together which has been made necessary by the country’s small size.

In Britain and the US, for example, the division between government and private developers is much more marked.

“The tradition of planning has always been something national and local government have been good at,” she says. “We’ve had some ups and downs, and now the state is making a statement again with the new planning legislation and the publication of its vision for residential development. We are so short on space and so much needs to be done that the government has to. I hope the new minister [Mona Keijzer] will continue with the same strategy – she has already hinted that she will.” 

“We don’t need new policy,” says Helma. “If you look at sustainability and resilience, we’ve pretty much got it under control when it comes to new developments, and affordability is going well too. But we need to be faster and make sure things don’t get bogged down in procedures. We’ve masses to do, and a certain moment you just have to get on with it.”

For example, she says, why does every development have to be treated as if it is special? “Take a city, where they build 4,000 new homes a year. I think 3,000 of them, perhaps 3,500 can be built with very little discussion. But we make every development a subject for debate and this is something where we can take action, by establishing clear routes to reach our objectives.”

Expo Real, she says, is a source of energy and inspiration. “The market has been fairly cautious in the past two years, but I hope this year everyone feels that things are improving,” she says. “Private buyers are buying and I hope that investors will start to feel the same way. The previous minister said we needed to build 900,000 homes and even though we have built some in the intervening period, that is still the case. It’s a gigantic job.”

You can meet Helma and the rest of the BPD team at the Holland Metropole stand at Expo Real from October 7 to 9. Hall 2, stand 130.