New Towns– An answer to the housing crisis?

Planning is rarely a major issue in general elections but this year was different. The escalating housing crisis has meant that the major parties all committed to building some 300,000 new houses a year. It is many decades since that figure was last achieved and the finger has been pointed at the planning system as a principal reason why the country continues to under – do. Rather than examining the specific reasons why planning appears to frustrate new house building, exaggerated claims about “bulldozing “the planning system flourished in the media.

The stark facts are that for many years planning in local government has been under – funded leading to low morale and declining numbers of qualified staff. A Catch 22 scenario exits where frustration has led to an enormous growth in private consultancy as applicants grapple with the complexity, and these firms in turn recruit staff from local government. The answer as so often is the case is more money. Is there an answer?

By a fascinating irony it comes from proposals initially put forward by the Conservative government and subsequently endorsed by Labour. Back in 2017 The Neighbourhood Planning Act introduced a significant modification to existing legislation allowing local authorities to create locally–led New Town Development Corporations. The National Infrastructure Commission, an executive agency of the Treasury, at that time championed new towns along the East West Rail route in the corridor between Oxford and Cambridge but progress since then has been sclerotic.

Labour have announced a massive new towns programme. At a conference in Leeds in May Deputy Leader Angela Reynolds announced “Labour’s towns of the future will be built on the foundations of the past. The post – war period taught us that when the government plays a strategic role in housebuilding, we can turbo – charge growth to the benefit of working people across Britain.” The original New Towns programme delivered 32 New Towns that today provide homes for 2.5 million people. The building of Milton Keynes came at a time in the early 1970’s, when Britain was facing economic problems of a severity similar to now, if not greater. The Treasury nevertheless gave the development corporation access to low- interest loans to acquire land cheaply, fund its infrastructure and social housing, as well as paying the salaries of the professional and administrative staff employed by the development corporations. The key was the recovery of the rise in land values to the community. Land sales and rents were paid back to the Exchequer. The towns were a valuable public investment. Building new towns is a long- term business and requires not only cross- party support but political consensus on funding.

The new government has announced a commission which will report in a year’s time. It is difficult to see why it should take so long to identify sites for the new towns. There is a great deal of existing research available.

The post – war new towns programme avoided wherever possible building in the Green Belts around our cities and conurbations. There is now a powerful lobby urging building in the less beautiful parts as a quick fix to the housing problem. The purpose of Green Belts is much misunderstood. Their principal purpose is to keep land open and avoid urban sprawl. Anyone who has driven in parts of Southern Europe has experienced this spawl and how communities merge into each other losing their identity.

Even if Green Belt land is not beautiful, it has been open for more than 70 years, and local residents will value this openness. The proposed changes to the NPPF suggest that hedged with caveats building in the Grey Belt may not be the promised quick fix.

There is still huge scope for building on brownfield land in our cities and towns, From 2015 more than 100,000 houses have been built under the revised permitted development rights in town centes, but much more can be done. The proposed revisions to the NPPF are totally silent on this and it is a real opportunity lost. Together with a New Towns Programme that can help maintain our Green Belts, this is the way forward.