Programme will feature ‘bespoke’ planning policy and ‘site specific’ delivery vehicles
The final locations to be taken forward by the government’s new towns programme will be confirmed by the end of the year, the housing minister has promised.
The Labour government came into office with a manifesto commitment to “build a new generation of new towns”, setting up a task force which last year suggested 12 potential locations.
In March this year, the government pared these down to seven, with three identified as ‘priority interventions’.
A public consultation on the proposed locations and a draft planning policy for the programme closed in May, but strategic environment assessments are ongoing.
Speaking to the House of Lords built environment committee on Tuesday, Matthew Pennycook emphasised that the government remained committed to the programme, despite the departure of Keir Starmer from Number 10.
“Despite the change in Prime Minister, the government remains absolutely committed to the program and to delivering our manifesto commitments in respect to the programme, and those commitments we have already given,” said Pennycook.
“One of which is that we will have spades in the ground on at least three - I emphasise at least because there is a good chance it’s more - but at least three in this parliament.”
Pennycook is the minister responsible for the new towns programme and was asked to attend cabinet by Burnham.
Pennycook told the committee that the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government was “working through” feedback from the public consultation with “a view to publishing a government response in due course” and said that environmental assessments would be published “at least before the end of the year”.
“At that point we’ll have final locations to announce,” he added.
When prompted by the committee chair, he confirmed that this meant the final locations would be announced this year.
This will be accompanied by a “bespoke planning policy” statement that will set out “all the parameters that need to apply to how new towns are delivered, placemaking principles and the like”. He said this would “complimentary” with the recently published National Planning Policy Framework.
Pennycook said the announcement of final sites would be followed by further consultations, dealing with more granular issues, and said that the government would not be prescriptive in demanding a specific form of delivery vehicle.
Proposed new towns locations
- Tempsford, Bedfordshire — up to 40,000 homes built around a new East West Rail station, linking residents to Cambridge, Oxford, London and Milton Keynes
- Crews Hill and Chase Park, Enfield — up to 21,000 homes
- Leeds South Bank, West Yorkshire — up to 20,000 homes
- Manchester Victoria North, Greater Manchester — at least 15,000 homes with a new Metrolink stop connecting residents to jobs across the city
- Thamesmead, Greenwich — up to 15,000 homes unlocking riverside land in London, enabled by the planned Docklands Light Railway extension
- Brabazon and the West Innovation Arc, South Gloucestershire — up to 40,000 homes at the heart of a research and advanced engineering economy
- Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire — a ‘renewed town’ vision to expand the city by around 40,000 homes a new local transport system, boosting connectivity in the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor
“Delivery vehicles and the approach to each of these sites is going to be very, very site specific,” he said.
“They’re all at different states of maturity. They’re all different propositions. They will inevitably need to be taken forward with different delivery vehicles.
“Once we’ve confirmed final locations for each of the final sites, we’ll be much clearer about our proposed approach to how we want to take them forward.”
He also stressed that the final locations would “have a funding plan behind them in this spending review”, saying that one of the reasons the government did not take forward all 12 of the sites recommended by the taskforce was that the government “does have to cut its cloth”.
The new towns programme has not been without controversy. After a change of administration following local authority elections earlier this year, Enfield Council subsequently withdrew its support from the Crews Hill scheme.
However, it is understood that the mayor of London and the housing ministry intend to press ahead with the project regardless.
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