- Next generation of new towns will take lessons from transformative post-war housing boom under Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee building exemplary communities with first-class local GP surgeries, schools, green spaces and transport links.
- As Labour renews Britain, building of three new towns will begin this Parliament with Tempsford, Crews Hill and Leeds Southbank identified as most promising locations.
- The Housing Secretary will pledge to “do whatever it takes to get Britain building” to restore the dream of home ownership to thousands of families and tackle the housing crisis.
The Labour Government say they will “mobilise the power of the state to build a new generation of new towns and restore the dream of home ownership to thousands of families”, the Housing Secretary is expected to said on Sunday.
Steve Reed will this week take forward work in at least 12 locations, with the building of three new towns will begin this Parliament. Tempsford, Leeds South Bank and Crews Hill have been identified as the most promising sites.
The Housing Secretary will pledge to “do whatever it takes to get Britain building”, establishing the ‘New Towns Unit’ to fast-track development as Labour chooses the path of renewal.
The Unit will support the investment of millions of pounds of public and private sector funding to build exemplary communities with first-class local facilities including GP surgeries, schools, green spaces, libraries and transport and work with world class architects to plan each new town with their own character and distinct, unique identity.
The policy comes as Labour’s annual conference opens, where the government will set out how they will be pushing ahead with delivering on Keir Starmer’s promise of national renewal to make working people better off.
Labour will reject the quick fix solutions from Reform and the Tories, who want to divide the country and return Britain to the path of decline, which would leave working people poorer.
Labour’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:
“For so many families, homeownership is a distant dream.
“My Labour Government will sweep aside the blockers to get homes built, building the next generation of new towns.
“This is national renewal in action, building Britain’s future and giving the key to home ownership to young families across the country as part of the Plan for Change.”
Steve Reed MP, Labour’s Housing Secretary, said over the weekend that:
“We will fight for hard-working people, locked out of a secure home for too long by the Conservative government of blockers. This Labour government won’t sit back and let this happen. I will do whatever it takes to get Britain building. We’ve got to ‘build baby build’
“That’s the way we put the key to a decent home in the pocket of everyone who needs a secure and affordable home. And not just homes, but communities, and not just communities but entire towns.
“This party built new towns after the war to meet our promise of homes fit for heroes. Now, with the worst economic inheritance since that war, we will once again build cutting-edge communities to provide homes fit for families of all shapes and sizes.
“I am launching the next generation of new towns taking the lessons from the post war Labour government housing boom… mobilising the full power of the state to build a new generation of new towns and restore the dream of home ownership to thousands of families across the country.”
The independent report on the New Towns Taskforce has been published today, recommending 12 potential locations for new towns.
The next generation will see large-scale standalone new communities, urban extensions and urban regeneration schemes that will work with the grain of development in any given area.
Based on the post-war New Towns programme under the Atlee Government that saw the biggest increase in housebuilding in our country’s history, each town will have at least 10,000 homes and some considerably more.
Collectively they could deliver up to 300,000 homes across the country over the coming decades. The Government welcomes the Taskforce’s recommended ambition for a minimum of 40% affordable housing, half of which will be for social rent.
Modelled on the regeneration of Stratford during and after the Olympic and Paralympic Games which is expected to deliver over 20,000 new homes, the Government welcomes the recommendation for development corporations to deliver new towns. These could have special planning powers to compulsory purchase land, invest in local GPs and schools, and grant planning permission.
This comes as the Housing Secretary Steve Reed has pledged to unleash the biggest era of house building in the country’s history, accelerating building, speeding up approvals, and fixing the archaic planning system which has been holding back house building across the country.
As part of the next phase of reforms to get Britain building, the Housing Secretary is urgently working on a “building acceleration package” which will include working with the Mayor of London to restart house building in the capital and clearing the Building Safety Regulator’s backlog.
Just last week Housing Secretary Steve Reed issued a ‘call to arms’ to the country’s leading developers and house builders to ‘Build baby build’ and gave his clear backing to builders, pledging to break down the remaining barriers to development that stand in the way of building 1.5million homes.
This comes on top of major reforms already introduced by this Government to overhaul the planning system – including the pro-growth National Planning Policy Framework that alone will drive housebuilding to its highest level in over 40 years. This is alongside the landmark Planning and Infrastructure Bill to boost the economy by up to £7.5 billion over the next decade, and a historic £39 billion investment to build hundreds of thousands of new social and affordable homes.
All sites and reasonable alternatives for new towns, as well as place-making principles, will be subject to environmental assessment and consultation, with Government confirming the final new town locations and funding in Spring next year.
