Building better new towns: how to turn a bold housing vision into lasting, liveable communities

The government’s renewed focus on large-scale planned communities has reignited debate about how the UK can deliver housing growth that genuinely creates thriving, sustainable places.

With the housing crisis deepening and the legacy of past new towns offering both cautionary tales and valuable lessons, the challenge now is to ensure this new generation of developments delivers on its promise – socially, economically and environmentally.

In the week that the government confirmed the locations of its 12 new towns, a roundtable of leaders from across the housing sector sat down to discuss how the mistakes of previous new towns can be avoided this time around – and how we can seize the opportunity to create truly integrated, successful new places that flourish.

The group were excited about the possibilities offered by the new towns programme. As David Johnson, partner at Ridge and Partners, put it: “There’s an opportunity before us to change how we deliver vibrant and thriving new places to live and work.”

His fellow Ridge partner Steve Cooper was particularly keen on the programme’s potential to provide training opportunities for the much-needed built environment trades and professionals of the future.

The challenge ahead

But the group were also very aware of the scale of the challenge involved. Rachael Williamson, director of policy, communications and external affairs at the Chartered Institute of Housing, expressed it like this: “The tensions we have to manage together are between the ambition to ‘build, baby build’ and the need to make sure we build homes that people can afford; that are good-quality; that are fit for the future; that will enable people to live well; and that will support intergenerational living.”

Lisa Gledhill, managing director of national partnerships at Muse and Habiko, agreed, saying: “If we get that bit right, we have a chance to solve the current pandemic of loneliness.”

Tristan Robinson, director of external affairs and social value at Thakeham, said: “We need to make sure we deliver place and community – places where there are the shops, where there are the schools, where there are the cafes, co-working spaces, electric vehicle car clubs, places where people can interact together… That’s how we’ll make sure they will stand the test of time.”

Medium density

Katja Stille, director at Tibbalds, said: “If we want to create real communities with compact centres that are vibrant, we need that ‘missing middle’ that you get with medium density. It is vital to have a greater variety of houses. If you just get young families moving in, the whole town ages together. It needs to be mixed from the start.”

Robbie Calvert, head of policy and public affairs at the Royal Town Planning Institute, said: “New towns won’t happen in isolation. It’s important they are connected with everything else that’s going on. We want to ensure a plan-led approach as far as possible.

“We’re very interested in the reintroduction of strategic development strategies, so how are new towns going to incorporate into that? How are they going to work with the government’s industrial strategy, for example? We’ve also been calling for a national spatial framework, and we really feel that new towns could have been a part of that to ensure a joined-up approach.”

Early infrastructure

There was agreement that getting infrastructure in place early is vital.

Kate Greenaway, Peabody’s project director for Thamesmead Waterfront, said: “One of the reasons Thamesmead is a successful place today is because of the infrastructure – the green and blue spaces.

“But the infrastructure was not put in at the beginning – and that led to some very isolated communities. Having infrastructure in at the beginning is key. But that’s a viability challenge. So perhaps that is somewhere where Homes England and the government could have a role to support bringing in the infrastructure first?”

Several people round the table emphasised the importance of phasing delivery and how useful meanwhile spaces – or “worthwhile spaces” as Gledhill prefers to call them – can be to begin to build trust. Robinson also pointed out the value of community-owned and community-run assets, using a model such as that offered by Plunkett UK – a national charity that supports people in rural communities to set up and run businesses in community ownership.

The knowledge exists

Simon Bayliss, managing partner at HTA Design and co-founder of Architects Action for Affordable Housing, argued: “There’s nothing in the taskforce document to get us to 1.5 million good – or even great – homes. Not much new. No structure to get us there.”

But voices across the group were keen to emphasise that the knowledge of how to make great places already exists within the sector.

Russ Edwards, project director at Latimer by Clarion Housing Group, pointed out: “The problem is there’s an overwhelming set of examples of how to do all this badly.

“But there are great examples of good practice too, and I worry we’re going to forget all the learning from the projects that are in the pipeline now – the garden communities and all the great urban regeneration practice.”

Familiar risks

The risks to the new towns programme were felt to be all too familiar: planning delays, viability constraints, lack of access to long-term finance, unwillingness on the part of utilities and other infrastructure providers to engage prior to planning approval, and shortage of professionals.

But Stille expressed the hope that the new towns, thanks to their scale and prominence, might offer an opportunity to unlock some of these chronic issues afflicting housing delivery.

Specifically, she hoped for a change in national policy to give local plans greater weight, which might be a way to facilitate easier infrastructure delivery. Edwards, meanwhile, wondered if the New Homes Accelerator would be able to deliver some of the necessary changes.

When it came to the question of how to ensure design quality, an often touted problem, Edwards emphasised the need to set clear standards and only work with developers that are happy to meet them, and Giffen talked about the value she has found in using design codes at Earls Court.

The way the new towns are financed will be key, since, as Bayliss pointed out, so often in housing design “form follows finance”. James McLarin, operations director (group chief executive’s office) at Sovereign Network Group, felt it was time to look again at the way housing is financed, and questioned whether there might be a role for the new Homes England bank to deliver some long-term financing.

Robinson emphasised: “Capturing land value altruistically for the benefit of the project has got to be a key part of the solution, otherwise you’re always going to be fighting a losing battle.”

Strategic leadership

Sharon Giffen, head of design at the Earls Court Development Company, said: “The strategic vision, the viability, the infrastructure, the facilities: who is going to pay for all these things; how they are going to be delivered – all that needs to be worked out in a full business case before you even start.”

Drawing on examples such as King’s Cross and Earls Court, she continued: “Having one body that controls the place and controls the stewardship long term – that’s key.” She argued for public-private partnerships and “long-term estate-management type companies”.

Edwards and McLarin both made the case for housing associations as master developers.

McLarin emphasised: “We’re long-term stewardship organisations already. We have the management structures in place. The large housing associations have the people in place. We know how to do it. We’re not public and we’re not private. We’re used to bridging the gap between the two. We’re good at raising finance.

“Properly resourced, we are really well placed to do this. We have planners etc in place, but we’ve not got the same drivers as private developers.”

Community engagement

Another key ingredient in the delivery of the new towns programme will be the successful engagement of local people. Gaining community buy-in will be crucial, and the group discussed the best ways to get local people on side.

Edwards pointed out: “Even in the middle of nowhere, there are always people there – and they demand respect and engagement.” He was also keen to emphasise the value of engaging with young people, and emphasised: “Don’t expect people to come to you. Consultations in town centres are good – don’t ask people to turn up to a dusty church hall at six o’clock on a Friday night.”

Giffen pointed out that at Earls Court they have had almost a million visitors on the site before they have even got planning consent. “We have found people will tell you what they want and where they want it. They drew the layout of the masterplan for us, in front of us,” she said.

Robinson emphasised: “The way that we’ll make this stick is by showing people the benefits – showing people what they can have – and then building trust and delivering on that trust. Otherwise, we’ll be sitting here having exactly the same conversation in 10 years about the next new towns programme.”

Flexibility is the key

Several of the experts pointed out that greater flexibility would probably be necessary on the part of those making and enforcing policy, to facilitate the successful delivery of so many new homes.

Edwards said, for example, that laundry list asks from local authorities need to become more realistic.

And Bayliss wondered if affordable housing requirements could be adjusted to take account of other benefits being delivered to local communities, such as jobs and infrastructure, and asked if the New Towns Taskforce might not be well placed to consider the whole issue of affordable housing quotas more generally, and how these are  delivering homes in practice.

At the same time, Calvert pointed out there will need to be flexibility in the delivery of the new towns themselves. He said: “So economic development use, for example, what’s that going to look like 30 years from now? What are our high streets going to look like? It’s quite difficult to envisage.”

It seems flexibility on the part of all stakeholders will be key to the successful delivery of the new towns programme. Delivering successful new towns will require collaboration, foresight and a willingness to balance ambition with practicality at every stage.

By learning from past mistakes, engaging communities early and embracing flexible, well-resourced strategies, there is a real opportunity to create places that endure and flourish for generations.