We’ve been hearing about New Town’s from the Government since the Rachel Reeves stood up just after the election and made house building and development the centre piece of Labour’s growth strategy.
Now we have the first output from the New Town’s Board – and it seems a little motherhood and apple pie – but is backed by some strong rhetoric from the PM about addressing the blockers. And that commitment is potentially the more important part than the interim report at this stage.
The report itself gives us a view into what the committee thinks it takes to make new towns work based on the lessons of history. They must be at scale, 10,000 homes “but likely significantly more where achievable”, they must be well connected to transport, they must have a local vision, they should be “higher density” and must have long term stewardship.
Finance is clearly crucial. The Government has suggested it will invest to support the early growth and recoup that cost later. This isn’t a surprise and is necessary to get some of the schemes delivering the infrastructure needed early.
And a drum we have been banging here at Cratus: engagement is the central role to be played by Community Engagement, which rightly, will help to set the Vision for the proposals. With the scale of change such communities bring, this sort of engagement is undeniably necessary to ensure that existing communities get the benefits of development.
As a bit of useful pub quiz knowledge (applications to join our pub quiz in Reading are now open!) Peterlee is the only new town to be named after a community figurehead from the pre-existing community
With over 100 applications made the Government is taking more time to review their options and will be announcing locations at the Spending Review in the summer, so watch this space.
Read the full report here: Building new towns for the future.
by Julian Seymour, Deputy CEO, Managing Director (Planning and Communities)