The government will establish a New Towns Unit which will work with all departments and agencies to ensure new towns are “a test bed for innovation and to unblock barriers to delivery”.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has announced the unit as part of its response to a new independent report that recommends 12 locations as potential new towns.
The report, commissioned by the then-deputy prime minister and housing secretary Angela Rayner in July, makes 44 recommendations, including that new towns “must be treated by the government as a strategic priority as part of a coordinated cross-Whitehall approach”.
In the government’s response, it says the New Towns Unit will join forces with Homes England in a new “delivery partnership to lead on discussions with places and work across government departments to stress-test spending and delivery plans for the vital economic and social infrastructure that each new town will require”.
It says delivering the next generation of new towns will be a “cross-government effort and central to government’s agenda, not just in terms of building homes but to drive economic growth and spread economic opportunity across the country”.
“This will be a priority across all government departments to ensure that new towns are built with the infrastructure and amenities required to create successful new places, with the long-term certainty of funding,” it adds.
MHCLG also said new towns are an opportunity to “deliver across our missions” and “test-bed new innovative policies from across government”.
The government response also sets out how MHCLG will work closely with specific departments:
- The Department of Health and Social Care to embed the government’s vision for neighbourhood health into the design and infrastructure for new towns
- The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to consider the opportunity for more nature-positive and climate-resilient places
- The education and work and pensions departments to consider the opportunity for new skills partnerships and economic hubs
- The Department for Culture, Media and Sport to consider the opportunity for culture, sport, youth and community infrastructure
The response to the report also says that, once new towns are selected, the government “will back them to deliver as quickly as possible, using all levers at its disposal”.
“This relies not just on strong collaboration with local partners, but effective and fast cross-government collaboration and support,” MHCLG said.
“To enable this, government will support selected new towns to deliver by providing a single front door to government and support to set up delivery vehicles as well as the provision of robust national planning policy.”
The report, produced by the New Towns Taskforce, led by Sir Michael Lyons, was commissioned by the government to explore different approaches to large-scale development. The taskforce has recommended building a mixture of large-scale communities including urban extensions, urban regeneration and standalone greenfield sites, and put forward 12 new towns.
The report says each new town should have at least 10,000 homes with an ambition for a minimum of 40% affordable housing, half of which will be for social rent. The taskforce has also set out a range of recommendations for delivery, including the importance of accountable delivery bodies that are able to provide long-term certainty for communities in new towns.
MHCLG said it welcomed all 12 recommended locations and the taskforce's wider recommendations on delivery and implementation.
The department said that, "at this stage, sites at Tempsford, Crews Hill and Leeds South Bank look most promising" and that it is "determined to begin building in at least three new towns in this parliament". It added that it is "prepared to progress work on a far larger range of locations if it proves possible".