Housing Secretary Steve Reed has announced the 7 New Town locations government will be bringing forward as part of its public consultation on the New Towns Programme. These were picked from the New Towns Taskforce’s initial 12 recommendations (itself slimmed down from a 127-location longlist).
The full list of New Towns being proposed by the Taskforce are:
- Tempsford, Bedfordshire — up to 40,000 homes built around a new East West Rail station, linking residents to Cambridge, Oxford, London and Milton Keynes
- Crews Hill and Chase Park, Enfield — up to 21,000 homes helping to meet London’s acute housing need
- Leeds South Bank, West Yorkshire — up to 20,000 homes capitalising on the city’s economic momentum and the government’s £2.1 billion local transport investment
- Manchester Victoria North, Greater Manchester — at least 15,000 homes regenerating the heart of Greater Manchester, with a new Metrolink stop connecting residents to jobs across the city
- Thamesmead, Greenwich — up to 15,000 homes unlocking inaccessible riverside land in London, enabled by the planned Docklands Light Railway extension
- Brabazon and the West Innovation Arc, South Gloucestershire — up to 40,000 homes at the heart of a world-class research and advanced engineering economy
- Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire — building on its history as one of the original new towns, to take forward the ‘renewed town’ vision to expand the city by around 40,000 homes and reinvigorate the centre with a new local transport system, boosting connectivity in the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor
The government’s own document highlights this is “the first formal step in shaping the New Towns Programme” – so what happens from here?
The consultation runs until 19th May, however MHCLG has already promised to assist the New Towns with “funding, delivery expertise and policy support”, highlighting two bodies that have been, or will be, set up to support the programme.
The first of these is the New Towns Unit which was responsible for choosing these final 7 locations that have gone to public consultation. Going forward, the NTU will provide “escalation and extra capacity across departments and arm’s-length bodies”, likely acting as a de facto project manager for the Programme by ensuring that the various departments involved work cohesively, and are supported by a central staff dedicated to the Programme. Four interim advisors to the Unit have already been announced: Lyn Garner, Ian Piper, Emma Cariaga, and David Rudlin, all of whom bring extensive experience in large-scale land and planning projects to the table.
The second body will be a New Towns Place Review Panel, which will provide expert and impartial advice to the various delivery bodies and planning authorities on placemaking, design and other aspects of delivery. The Panel will likely be informed by the upcoming “New Towns Planning Policy” document, which will help inform the design and delivery of New Towns (alongside the NPPF), and is due to be published later this year.
The government did not comment on how individual towns would be delivered, stating only that it would establish the “right vehicle” for each place, which would include development corporations where appropriate. The government did, however, commit to a minimum 40% affordable housing target across all 7 locations, including the two situated in London.
Steve Reed said the programme “marks a turning point in how we build for the future”, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves adding that “For decades this country’s planning system has been a direct obstacle to building new homes […] now we’re planning to build a new generation of new towns, opening up the expansion of our most dynamic cities and raise up new communities”
Whilst Sir Michael Lyons, who chaired the New Towns Taskforce, praised the government’s announcement, calling it “just the ambitious response we hoped for”, its clear that much work is still to be done. Ministers and the department will have to continue to develop these proposals at pace if they are to hit their promise of breaking ground on 3 New Towns by the time of the next election.
Recent polling by You Gov indicates that only 40% of Britons support the construction of New Towns, with just 31% supporting the construction of a New Town in their local area. However, Labour voters, alongside Green and Lib Dem voters, are the most supportive of the programme.
You can view the Government’s full press release here :
