Minister of State for Housing and Planning ( MP): The post-war New
Towns programme was the most ambitious town-building effort ever
undertaken in the UK. It transformed the lives of millions of
working people by giving them affordable and well-designed homes
in well-planned and beautiful surroundings. The 32 communities it
created are now home to millions of people. This government will
continue to invest in their regeneration, but we are also
committed to bringing forward the next generation of new towns.
This government's new towns programme will include large-scale
standalone new communities, but also a larger number of urban
extensions and urban regeneration schemes that will work with the
grain of development in any given area. The unifying principle
will be that each of the new settlements will contain at least
10,000 homes, although we expect a number to be far larger in
size. Collectively, we expect they could provide hundreds of
thousands more homes in the decades to come.
This government believes that sustained economic growth is the
only route to improving the prosperity of our country and the
living standards of working people. Getting Britain building
again is integral to kickstarting that growth. Our new towns
programme will not just make a significant contribution to
meeting housing demand and housing need across England but will
also support economic growth by releasing the productive
potential of constrained towns and cities across England and
ensuring our housebuilding drive is aligned with our industrial
strategy and national infrastructure plans.
We have been clear we want exemplary development to be the norm
not the exception. The next generation of new towns must be
well-connected, well-designed, sustainable and attractive places
where people want to live and have all the infrastructure,
amenities and services necessary to sustain thriving communities.
The ‘New Towns Code' will ensure they deliver to the highest
standards and help meet housing need by targeting rates of 40%
affordable housing with a focus on genuinely affordable social
rented homes.
The New Towns Taskforce
We have established an independent New Towns Taskforce to support
this mission.
The role of the Taskforce is to advise ministers on appropriate
locations for significant housing growth. It will deliver a final
shortlist of recommendations by summer 2025, but will have the
freedom to share conclusions in respect of specific sites earlier
if beneficial to the government's housebuilding drive. The
Taskforce will work in partnership with local leaders and
communities wherever possible, but its selection of sites will be
made in the national interest.
The Taskforce is chaired by Sir Michael Lyons. Sir Michael has
had a distinguished career in public service including over 26
years in local government, including 17 years as the chief
executive of three major UK local authorities. He has a detailed
knowledge of the housing sector, not least through the Lyons
Housing Review commissioned by the then Leader of the Opposition,
the Rt Hon MP. He was also a former Chairman of the BBC. Sir
Michael is the current non-executive Chairman of the English
Cities Fund – which is a joint venture with largescale
regeneration developments in London, Liverpool, Plymouth, Salford
and Wakefield.
Sir Michael is supported in his role by Dame Kate Barker as
Deputy Chair, a former non-executive director at Taylor Wimpey.
Dame Kate is experienced in working with the government on
housing policy and has previously been commissioned by the
government to conduct a major independent policy review of UK
housing supply, and subsequently a review of land use planning.
Alongside her experience in housing policy, Dame Kate also chairs
the trustees of the Universities Superannuation Scheme and has
previously been an external member of the Bank of England's
Monetary Policy Committee.
We have appointed a further eight members of the Taskforce, who
have a wealth of expertise across housing, local government,
planning, housebuilding. Full details on the Taskforces
membership can be found here(opens in a new tab).
The Taskforce has met twice, in Milton Keynes in September and
Cambridge in October. At both meetings they met with local
partners to understand the key lessons learnt from previous large
site delivery.
They will continue their work to deliver a final report by summer
2025, and consider key matters including: the strategic case for
new towns; location identification and selection; placemaking;
design and standards; funding, risk and institutional investment;
and unlocking delivery and innovation.
We will continue to update Parliament on the work of the
Taskforce.