The pursuit of unconditionality: property-led development, land assembly and a network of contractual arrangements

Property-led development and the relations between local authorities and private sector developers are topics that have formed the subject of much theoretical analysis in socio-legal studies, town planning literature and urban studies. However, there has been little examination of the network of contractual arrangements that underpin a property-led development project. These contractual underpinnings are important because they can facilitate the assembly of a development site. In addition, this network of contractual arrangements commonly stipulates both the terms on which a local authority transfers land it owns or has acquired to a private sector developer and a series of conditions to be discharged before a developer becomes obliged to commence construction of a development project.

This research, therefore, offers an original contribution to knowledge through a detailed study of this network of contractual arrangements. It does so by asking research questions that are specific to a property-led development project in a small city called Winchester, situated in the southeast of England. Alongside these specific questions, the research considers broader questions designed to provide insights into property-led development and legal practices beyond the confines of the case study. The research particularly examines the use of contractual arrangements as an instrument of land assembly, and analyses the role of law and legal technologies in property-led development. By drawing upon recent scholarship in socio-legal studies, the research also questions the extent to which ‘time’ functions as an ordering device in the contractual arrangements commonly deployed in property-led development practice, and considers the extent to which this network of contractual arrangements produces and sustains a sense of movement along a defined development trajectory.