The Lead Untangles: Will seven new towns fix Britain’s housing crisis?

Labour is betting on a new generation of towns to boost growth and tackle the housing shortage – but can they deliver in time?

Milton Keynes was part of the first wave of post-war new towns. Pic: Unsplash

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At a glance facts

The Government has selected seven areas across the country as potential sites for its proposed wave of new towns. It has whittled down the list from the 12 initially put forward by its New Towns Taskforce, and there will be a consultation before the final locations are decided.

Ministers claim the new towns are important if the Government is to reach its target of building 1.5 million new homes within this parliament – even though only three are likely to get off the ground in that time. Labour has pledged at least 40 per cent affordable housing in each town, half of which to be available at social rent. The intention is for each new town to include a minimum of 10,000 new homes, set in communities in which amenities can be reached easily without a car.

But the policy raises a central question: can a small number of long-term developments meaningfully ease the UK’s ongoing housing shortage? Or are ministers betting on a solution that will take decades to deliver – while the crisis deepens now?

Context

Keir Starmer invoked the post-war era of new towns when he promised to start building a new generation at the Labour conference in 2023.

Despite constrained finances, communities and housing secretary Steve Reed recently underlined the Government’s continued ambition to recreate the boom that brought us Welwyn Garden City, Skelmersdale and Milton Keynes when he said: “The only time the UK’s economy has consistently grown at above 3 per cent per annum was during the period of post-war reconstruction.”

Labour’s New Towns Taskforce made a series of recommendations in its report last year that also put forward 12 potential sites: that they should be built at scale, create thriving communities with the right infrastructure, and be located in areas where they could boost economic growth or address a particularly high demand for housing.

Taskforce chair Sir Michael Lyons said there was a “compelling argument” for new towns both to meet housing need and stimulate growth. He believed its 12 recommended sites could contribute at least 300,000 new homes.

The seven new towns – a mix of new settlements, extensions to existing towns and even inner-city districts – are: Tempsford, Bedfordshire; Leeds South Bank; Crews Hill and Chase Park, Enfield; Thamesmead, Greenwich; Manchester Victoria North; Brabazon and the West Innovation Arc, South Gloucestershire; and Milton Keynes.

Former new town Milton Keynes is to get its own new town, with a plan to extend it by 40,000 homes and build a new local transport centre.

Tempsford, a genuinely new new town built around a new rail station in what is currently just a village, would also have around 40,000 homes.

Some eyebrows were raised when two of the country’s biggest cities, Leeds and Manchester, were earmarked for “new towns” – a label generally associated with entirely new settlements rather than regeneration schemes within existing urban areas.

At Manchester Victoria North, for example, developers have already started handing over homes – meaning newly built properties are being completed and occupied by residents – leading some to question whether this is genuinely a “new town” or simply an ongoing housing development being rebadged. Lyons argues this is consistent with the Government’s economic objectives and that there has never been a settled definition of new towns in legislation.

Of the five sites excluded from the Taskforce’s original list, Adlington in Cheshire drew the most attention because of local opposition. Last December, Cheshire East Council passed a motion opposing the new town plan for green belt land around Adlington. Councillors had been blindsided because of a non-disclosure agreement between the Government and the landowner that prevented public consultation.

Removing it from the list, the Government said only that Adlington was unlikely to offer the same level of “nationally significant economic growth” as the other northern sites. It added that other sites outside the 12 may yet come under consideration.

Can new towns tackle the housing crisis?

For Labour’s other objective, tackling the housing crisis, new towns could be a “unique opportunity”, according to a joint report by Shelter and the New Economics Foundation, if they put social housing at the centre of them.

New towns could be “great places to live”, argue the two organisations, but only if they follow the lessons of post-war history by putting development corporations at the head of them, with extensive powers of land assembly and planning, and back them up with public investment.

The private sector’s willingness to provide most of the funding, on which the Government is relying, is a “key question”, warns their report.

Ministers have promised that part of Homes England’s new Social and Affordable Housing Programme will fund new towns, and point to grant funding to the country’s mayoral authorities, the new National Housing Bank and the Brownfield Housing Bank as other possible sources of funding. But for any genuinely new money, we will have to wait until the final locations are confirmed, according to Reed.

He has also said that the aim of 40 per cent affordable housing in new towns, with half of that at social rent, is only an aspiration the Government will push for and it can’t be certain of reaching it. Nor has he explained how new town homes will contribute to the government’s target of 1.5 million new homes by the end of this parliament. Even if its preferred three – Crews Hill and Chase Park, Leeds South Bank and Tempsford – do get spades in the ground before 2029, they are unlikely to be completed by then.

What will new towns actually do?

The Government calls the new town programme the “biggest housebuilding programme in over fifty years”, helping people live close to jobs and transport links.

More than 100 sites were submitted to the New Towns Taskforces’s call for evidence.

In an explainer on its website, the Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government is already making its pitch to first-time buyers, renters or people in search of a family home, offering an environment designed for “modern, everyday life”, with shared green spaces and vibrant high streets.

Ministers are promising new towns will have an “appropriate” geographical spread across England, be sustainable in transport and environmental terms, and aligned to the government’s Net Zero agenda.

The Taskforce was “concerned” to note the extent of poor water and power infrastructure across the country and made its recommendations accordingly, but said the government must continue to take steps to improve it – a need only heightened by the current oil shock.

What people are saying

“New towns must be built with existing communities in mind. They should be designed to bring real opportunity, identity and community to the people who will live there. Engagement must go beyond consultation: young people, families and future residents should help to shape the identity of the place from the start.” – Abena Oppong-Asare, Labour MP for Erith and Thamesmead

“The Government needs to look further and faster at the proper development of brownfield land, rather than ripping up the green belt and steamrolling over local democracy, local voices and local communities.” – Gareth Bacon, Conservative MP for Orpington

“The first wave of new towns showed what can be achieved when government and planners work at scale, but they also highlight the importance of getting design, infrastructure, and community voice right from the very start. Public support for new towns will depend on learning those lessons and making sure they reflect the aspirations of the people who will live and work in them.” – Dr Victoria Hills, chief executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute

What happens next

The public consultation on new towns runs until 19 May, while further environmental and habitat assessments are taking place. The Government wants to publish final proposals and confirm the new towns locations later in the summer. The timeline beyond that is not clear yet and there is little indication of when the first homes might be built.

The consultation says once the locations have been decided the Government will use “every lever at its disposal to prioritise early delivery of homes and infrastructure.” That will mean setting up delivery bodies such as development corporations, and funding the planning of new infrastructure.■

About the author: Kevin Gopal is a Manchester-based journalist who has returned to freelancing after editing Big Issue North from 2007 until its closure in 2023.

About The Lead Untangles: In an era where misinformation is actively and deliberately used by elected politicians and where advocates and opposers of beliefs state their point of view as fact, sometimes the most useful tool reporters have is to help readers make sense of the world. If there is something you would like us to untangle, email ella@thelead.uk.

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