Labour’s New Towns Policy

The new towns of the 20th century played an important role in addressing a housing shortage, particularly post war: 1940s new towns Bracknell, Crawley, Harlow, Hatfield, Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City house 662,000 people today. But despite these successes, more recent attempts to replicate their achievements – notably ‘Eco Towns’ and ‘Garden Communities’ – failed to do so.

So, as the government’s New Towns Taskforce embarks on another ambitious programme of new towns, Planning and Development InSite sought views on their likely success from David Churchill, Partner in Carter Jonas’ London office.

The Taskforce, which is due to report back to the government with a list of potential locations in July, is required to advise on a series of ‘exemplary’ large communities (10,000 homes or more). It will put in place the principles and standards to provide good quality places, explore new ways to attract future funding and investment and identify practical solutions to remove barriers that will unlock the delivery of new towns. It has also been tasked with putting in place plans to engage with mayors, local leaders and communities in doing so. This work will form the publication of a report due to land on ministers’ desks later this year.

Necessary ingredients

The government’s Vision for a New Generation of New Towns states that 40% of all housing within new towns will be designated affordable housing, and that communities must be well-connected, well-designed and sustainable. Furthermore, the infrastructure, amenities and services must be made available to sustain thriving communities.

So, what is the magic ingredient required to building successful new towns – why did those of the 1950s, 60s and 70s succeed, whereas later interactions often failed to get as far as a planning consent?

20th century successes

David comments, “The post-war New Towns model required that homes and the infrastructure needed to support them was built simultaneously. Initial investment, and later profits made from selling the homes, was used to fund new transport networks, pedestrian and cycling routes, and services such as schools, hospitals and GP surgeries. With this approach, the new town becomes its own economic powerhouse, attracting residents with brand new community facilities and attracting companies with its excellent infrastructure and an available workforce.

“A clear success indicator of the post-war new towns is that, in almost every case, the intended population size has been considerably exceeded. Hemel Hempstead, created in 1947, was originally planned to have a population of 65,000 but has grown to 155,217 today – an increase of 139%. Similarly, Bracknell (1949) has exceeded its initial target by 106% and Milton Keynes (1967) by 92%. Likewise, Stevenage, Harlow, Welwyn Garden City, Crawley and Hatfield (all created in the 1940s) have exceeded their proposed population size, while only Runcorn, with a population of 62,100, is yet to meet its original target (71,000).”

21st century failures

Since the New Towns Development Corporations (NTDCs) were wound up in the 1980s, attempts at building large scale settlements have largely floundered.

David explains: “The ten proposed Eco Towns, one of the first announcements by Gordon Brown when taking office in 2007, faced controversy from the outset. Inspired by European projects, these 20,000-home conurbations set out to deliver 30 per cent affordable housing and achieve high environmental standards. But, despite a dedicated Planning Policy Statement published in 2009, their site selection process faced controversy from the outset. The original ten sites were eventually whittled down to four: Whitehill and Bordon (Hampshire), St Austell (Cornwall), Rackheath (Norfolk) and North West Bicester (Oxfordshire). When the Coalition government came into power, the funding was halved and later reduced all together.

“The Garden communities programme – ‘locally led large settlements’ based on the early 20th century Garden City Movement – was launched in 2014. More than 40 sites were designated, but 33 of these were for fewer than 10,000 homes and only one, Ebbsfleet in Kent, exceeds 15,000 homes. Not only were these schemes much smaller than the original new towns but the programme has struggled to gain site allocations in local plans. A stocktake in 2019 found that just 14,000 homes had been delivered under the programme and a third of homes proposed had no formal planning status at all.”

Viability issues

Perhaps in view of the dismal failure of the most recent iterations, there is a concern that our next new towns will only ‘dent’ housing targets. Analysis by Centre for Cities concludes that even the highly successful post-war new towns only accounted for 3.3% of all new housebuilding in the 40 years after the Second World War.

And in a policy statement issued shortly after taking office in July, the government stated that the affordable homes – no fewer than 40% of an entire new town - should have ‘a focus on genuinely affordable social rented homes’.

One of the many questions about the potential for success is viability: is there a risk that these ambitious affordable housing goals undermine the economics of large-scale developments? “Currently, there are concerns about viability in relation to the extent of the investment required to be made by the private sector in affordable housing provision,” says David. “In the context of new towns situated on Green Belt (or Grey Belt) land, this requirement will rise to 50%. Technically the affordable housing requirement for Grey Belt land is 15% greater than the highest quota currently required by the local authority, but due to most local authorities making an upper requirement of 35%, this will invariably amount to 50%.

“For substantial new towns development to succeed, we will need to see more flexibility on a case-by-case basis, alongside public sector investment to ensure that those areas most in need benefit from the required number of new homes.

“It is also important that the system builds in protections for landowners and removes potential or perceived deterrents including new tax burdens.”

Can new towns deliver at speed?

Part of the drive to deliver housing through new towns is the belief that hundreds of thousands of houses can be delivered at scale and at pace. But can they? Analysis by Centre for Cities finds that homes in new towns have typically been built at a faster pace than in the rest of the country – but that although the policy can accelerate development in certain areas, its role in increasing total housebuilding is relatively small.

To avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, David says, “New towns need to be identified outside the local planning process. There is a real opportunity to align a new programme with devolution. Labour will need to borrow from the original new towns regime and give new settlements a national designation. This involves identifying areas where there is emerging local support for new settlements, such as in the Oxford-Cambridge Arc, and giving the area special planning status.”

Necessary planning reforms

Speaking at UKREiiF last May, Angela Rayner demanded, “We want homes on these sites within the first term of a Labour government.” Is this realistic: do Labour’s planning reforms go far enough to avoid the lengthy planning battles that have dogged many attempts to build new settlements in recent years?

“Perhaps not yet,” says David, “But the government is moving in the right direction, having established the New Towns Taskforce and putting in place significant changes in strategic planning.

“That said, from a new towns perspective, Paragraph 77 of the NPPF is probably the most important part of planning policy, and I was disappointed that the revised NPPF which was published in December did nothing to change this text. That said, there is still time for change.

“Because new towns intended to address the national housing crisis, it is important that decision-making does not sit solely with local authorities, and we are yet to hear whether the means of determining planning applications for new towns would fall outside the current framework – for example through the Development Consent Order (DCO), Special Development Order (SDO) or Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) process - once the broad principle is identified in the Local Plan.

“However, it’s encouraging that the housing minister has committed to rejuvenating the Advisory Team for Large Applications (ATLAS) service to support councils on housing schemes. It will also be important that this revived service works in support of new towns development proposals and does not create new obstacles.”

The importance of location

As we await the New Towns Taskforce’s location list, it is interesting to hear David’s views on what sort of sites the Taskforce might choose and why.

“Location matters because access to a sustainable public transport network is an important consideration for new communities. Where there is existing high-quality public transport accessible to the site, capital expenditure on public transport can be reduced and used to improve other facilities and services for the settlement. Where there is no existing public transport network, sites can be made sustainable but are likely to require greater capital expenditure.

“Size is important as it dictates the level of infrastructure, and planning policy is quite rightly clear on the fact that new housing must be supported by appropriate levels of infrastructure. By this I don’t mean smaller sites can’t come forward, but the greater the scale, the potentially more ambitious proposals can be – for public transport and more.

“And while the majority of proposals will provide basic levels of community infrastructure, it would be helpful if policy was clarified through a framework, describing how this should increase as schemes step up in scale. The framework should also clarify the level of public sector support for this element.”

The perils of local politics

Sir Michael Lyons, who chairs of the Taskforce has promised to “work closely with local leaders and their communities, as well as the wider development and investment sectors to make sure these new towns are built in the right places”.

But, just as recent political history has shown the propensity of local objectors to thwart new housing proposals, NIMBYism also plagued the original New Towns movement. When Lewis Silkin, planning minister from 1945-1950, visited the small village of Stevenage following its designation as a new town, locals shouted “dictator!” and “Gestapo!” and the train station sign was changed to Silkingrad. The novelist EM Forster, who lived nearby, declared that the plans would fall like “a meteorite upon the ancient and delicate scenery of Hertfordshire”.

The government’s role won’t be easy, but Rayner, unlike Silkin, has the benefit of past successes to provide some reassurance. Vox pops from the 250,000 residents of Milton Keynes may prove very useful in combatting inevitable local resistance.