18 COMMENT


David Churchill partner, Carter Jonas


Taking lessons from the old to inspire the new


David Churchill discusses what the right strategic framework should look like for the Government’s ‘new’ new towns.


© Jay Mullings


I


CERTAINTY IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS SPEED


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n March the Government named the locations for consideration as new towns, as part of the most ambitious housebuilding programme in more than half a century. The concept of the ‘new town’ has always been an ambitious expression of the state’s power to shape growth. Post-war, it was a necessity: a means of tackling population displacement, overcrowding and poor housing by creating selfsuffi cient places from scratch Today, the drivers are different – and arguably more complex – but the need for bold interventions is no less pressing. In the local authorities in which the new towns are to be located, the announcement will inevitably generate headlines – and familiar resistance. But to move the debate forward, we need to focus not on whether we should build new towns, but how. History tells us that the new towns that


fl ourished were those built with the right strategic frameworks. This means land assembly and delivery structures that give confi dence to investors and clarity to


communities. It means a robust planning system that balances local involvement with regional oversight. And above all, it means long-term political commitment. Without these fundamentals, new towns will remain little more than slogans.


WHY NEW TOWNS MATTER AGAIN nglands fi rst wave of new towns began in the 1940s and spanned three decades. In total, 21 settlements were delivered – from Harlow and Hemel Hempstead to Milton Keynes – housing more than 2.5 million people today. They remain one of the most successful planning experiments of the 20th century. But attempts to replicate that success in recent decades have largely failed. The Urban Development Corporations of the 1980s were effective in regenerating parts of our inner cities, but they were never intended to build new places at scale. More recent initiatives, specifi cally co owns and arden illages, have lacked the powers, scale or political support to succeed.


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