Interview with Bill Clewett

Bill talks of the early days at the Development Corporation (MKDC) from his appointment in July 1970, one of 120 employees. He was told to: ‘read the Master Plan from front to back and understand what we are aiming to do’. Bill worked first on the financial appraisals of specific project appraisals. Finance Dept. needed to seek funds for development, this was a battle, since Treasury funds for New Towns were sometimes restricted. Early bids were for infrastructure: the sewerage system and grid roads; and Bill recalls arguments with government about house-building contracts, and industrial sites. Fred Roche and Bill made annual visits to the Treasury, submitting MKDC bids and promoting the schemes. When they were seeking funding for the Shopping Building, Bill was Divisional Financial Accountant for CMK. They had to seek private funding from the Post Office Superannuation Fund (POSS fund) and John Lewis funded their own building; ‘MKDC were the backstop for the balance’. Bill became Finance Director from 1987 to 1992 and comments that: ‘it was a pleasure to work [at MKDC] … it was a good team’ and notes that MK was at the forefront of the introduction of shared ownership housing. He describes aspects of the Government’s new town funding process: the funding of private housing developments; and calculation of the Government’s new town housing subsidy for rental housing. They briefly discuss the early South MK system-built flat- roofed housing estates..

Treasury funding began to wind down in the 1980s and MKDC sought funding from other sources, and began to dispose of assets, which gave a reasonable return, because of the city’s success. In 1992 outstanding loans and assets were taken over by Commission for the New Towns (CNT), apart from those taken over by the Council and The Parks Trust. Commenting on the strategy of getting Treasury funds to build as many grid roads as possible in the last few years, Bill says: ‘it was a good strategic decision’. Bill considers himself a small cog in MKDC and sees the city as a success. He says: ‘we operated within the rules that were there and bent them where we could’. But, in his opinion MKDC should have been allowed to continue for a few more years. He is delighted that government agreed to fund the future landscaping of MK, by giving assets to set up the Parks Trust.