Strong and dedicated central government leadership is essential
if the next generation of new towns is to succeed. This will not
be possible without the Government being able to communicate its
overall vision for the new towns programme in terms that resonate
with the public, parliamentarians, local authorities, and the
built environment sector. And for this, the Government needs to
be clear about what it is aiming to achieve through the
programme. So says the cross-party House of Lords Built
Environment Committee in its report, ‘New Towns: Laying the
Foundations', which is published today.
The necessary leadership and long-term stewardship of the
programme and of each individual new town will not be achieved
through existing structures. While the presence of a dedicated,
cabinet-level figurehead at the heart of Government will be
essential, the Committee also argues for the creation of a new
agency to run and oversee the delivery programme. The Committee
was hugely impressed by the genuine energy and enthusiasm of the
Minister for Housing and Planning, but his portfolio is too broad
and his authority too limited to provide the cross-government
coordination necessary to overcome the inevitable hurdles to
delivery – not least unlocking the necessary funding from the
Treasury.
And funding is one of the most critical issues facing the
programme. The original post-war new towns programme received
very significant public funding in the shape of long-term loans,
with the Treasury acting as a patient investor, underwriting the
programme for decades, from planning to construction and until
maturity. In the current fiscal context, the ability of the
Government to provide funding at this level is significantly
reduced, meaning that alternative funding models will be needed
to plug the gap.
One clear route to encouraging and supporting the provision of
this kind of funding from the private and alternative sectors is
by delivering the infrastructure first – for example, building
the public transport links, schools, and hospitals – before
breaking ground on new housing. In the course of the inquiry, the
Committee saw clear examples of how this approach was able to
support the delivery of thriving and innovative communities and
could, in time, provide a source of ongoing funding for
development. The Government will also need to take real steps to
ensure that it is able to capture as much of the land value for
the selected sites as possible, including through reform of the
compulsory purchase regime – not least by ensuring that hope
value is excluded from land valuations.
Delivery of the new towns should, in almost all cases, be through
development corporations. A number of possible models are
available, but the Committee recommends that democratic
accountability should be ensured through local authority
representation within those delivery and governance structures.
Whatever model is used, it must be clear that it is there for the
long term, with a clear responsibility for stewarding the project
through delivery and community building, and for managing
community assets for the long term.
, Chair of the Built
Environment Committee, said:
“The Government's new towns programme is a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity to build genuinely affordable, high-quality homes and
to create communities where people want to live.
“Public support is fundamental to the success of the programme.
The Government needs to work hard, day in and day out, to
articulate a clear and ambitious vision for its programme. A key
element of this must be to inspire developers and planning
authorities to use the new towns as a model for future
development.
“But a vision alone will not be enough to get these new towns
built: the Government needs to show that it has the grip
necessary to drive the programme forward and make it happen.
“Now that the New Towns Taskforce has published its shortlist of
locations for 12
new towns the Government needs to set out, in explicit terms, how
it is planning to fund and deliver them.”
Other conclusions from the report include:
- The Government should establish a clear legal framework for
patient investment by the private and public sectors from the
start of the new towns programme.
- Returns on loans and investment will only accrue in the long
term, and patient investment by both the private and public
sectors will therefore be the primary source of finance for the
programme. This will require a different approach to the phasing
of investment.
- The Government should retain a small, but effective ownership
stake in each development corporation in order to encourage
investor confidence and demonstrate accountability at a national
level.
- There are significant skills shortages in a range of key
sectors, particularly in the planning profession, which pose
fundamental challenges to the entire programme and must be
addressed as a matter of urgency.
- The inclusion of plots of differing sizes in masterplans
offers opportunities for SME developers to participate
effectively in the delivery of new towns. It also encourages
human-scale development, avoiding homogeneity.
- The Government should set high-level design standards for the
entire programme, to be overseen by a centralised planning agency
for new and expanded towns. These should be supplemented by
locally sensitive design standards for each individual new town.
