20 COMMENT
The Government’s renewed appetite for new towns is welcome. But this cannot be a rebadging of past programmes. It requires serious commitment to strategic delivery and a long-term vision rooted in the reality of land, infrastructure and politics.
THE CRITICAL ROLE OF DEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONS At the heart of the post-war success story were the Development Corporations. Backed by the 1946 New Towns Act, they had far-reaching powers to assemble land, grant planning consent, deliver infrastructure and manage delivery. Importantly, they operated outside traditional local government boundaries – freeing them from some of the short term political pressures that hamper major development today.
The 2023 Levelling-Up and
Regeneration Act revives and updates these powers. Local and combined authorities can now create locally-led Development Corporations, supported by land assembly tools such as Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs), Development Consent Orders (DCOs) and Special Development Orders (SDOs). These are not panaceas – but they provide the institutional backbone needed to move from vision to delivery.
Where there is a clear delivery vehicle, private sector confi dence follows Development Corporations offer that clarity. Without them, new towns are more likely to falter at the planning stage or drift into piecemeal development.
LAND ASSEMBLY & THE IMPORTANCE OF SCALE
No single challenge looms larger than land. Sites must be large enough to support signifi cant growth the ew Towns Task Force proposes a minimum of 10,000 homes – yet few such sites are available without intervention. and assembly is diffi cult, slow and
WWW.HBDONLINE.CO.UK
often contested. But to create proper communities with schools, employment, healthcare and transport, a minimum threshold of scale is essential. England’s post-war new towns average populations of over 120,000 – 10 times the minimum size of the current Government’s ambitions. That scale underpinned the delivery of major infrastructure and real placemaking. Smaller settlements often struggle to achieve that, and risk becoming dormitory extensions rather than new towns in any meaningful sense.
Scale also supports long-term economic growth. Properly planned, new towns can diversify regional employment patterns, attract investment and improve productivity – but only if planned alongside infrastructure, not after it.
THE CASE FOR STRATEGIC AUTHORITIES To underpin this approach, a stronger strategic planning framework is required. The abolition of Regional Spatial Strategies in 2010 created a vacuum in strategic coordination. Since then, local plans have been the primary means of planning for growth – but localism alone cannot resolve the cross-boundary issues that new towns entail.
The 2024 English Devolution White Paper, now embodied in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act, proposes 33 new single-tier strategic authorities, each with a population of at least 500,000 and responsibility for housing, transport and infrastructure. These new authorities have the potential to rebalance the planning system – offering a more democratic alternative to regional planning, but one capable of thinking at the scale required for new towns.
MANAGING POLITICAL RISK Delivering a new town takes decades. The original Development Corporations had average lifespans of 25-40 years.
Against that backdrop, the suggestion that homes could be delivered on new town sites by 2029 looks overly optimistic. Instead, we need to think in terms of phases. Some smaller settlements could come forward more quickly, helping to address short-term need. But the bigger new towns will require sustained political commitment over multiple parliaments. That means putting in place structures that endure and resisting the temptation to tinker with the framework at every spending review or reshuffl e Private sector partners will only invest in long-term projects if they believe the strategic direction is fi ed ertainty is just as important as speed.
CONCLUSION
ew towns are not a uic fi to the housing crisis. But done right, they are a powerful part of the solution. That means building at scale, in the right locations, with the right planning and delivery structures in place.
Development Corporations should play a central role, supported by the new strategic authorities and empowered by modern planning tools. Land assembly must be treated as a priority, with access to DCOs, SDOs and CPOs where necessary. And political leaders must show the long-term commitment required to turn these plans into places. Crucially, new towns must be just one part of a wider strategy. Alongside them, we need sustained investment in urban regeneration, densifi cation and strategic urban extensions.
The announcement of the potential locations of the fi rst seven new towns marks a welcome shift in ambition. But it is the strategic framework behind them that will determine whether they succeed. History has shown us how to do it and how not to do it: we have much to learn from.
David Churchill is a partner at Carter Jonas
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76
