During the first day of Labour’s Annual Conference the housing secretary unveiled plans to build 12 new towns across England.
The announcement marked Steve Reed’s first direct address as housing secretary – a role he stepped into just three weeks ago following the resignation of Angela Rayner.
Under the plans, Reed recommended 12 locations across England that would benefit from a new towns development. Tempsford in Bedfordshire, Leeds South Bank and crews Hill in North London have been identified as three of the most promising sites.
News of the initiative comes following a new report from the new towns taskforce which includes a raft of recommendations for fresh developments throughout the country. What’s more, the taskforce said the new towns could deliver ‘up to 300,000’ homes over the ‘coming decades’.
When announcing the new plans, Reed said: ‘We will fight for hard-working people, locked out of a secure home for too long by the Conservative government of blockers. This Labour government won’t sit back and let this happen. I will do whatever it takes to get Britain building. We’ve got to ‘build, baby, build.
‘That’s the way we put the key to a decent home in the pocket of everyone who needs a secure and affordable home. And not just homes, but communities, and not just communities but entire towns.’
According to the government, each now town is expected to be comprised of at least 10,000 properties, GP surgeries, schools, green spaces and accessible transport links.
However, the industry has warned the government faces huge challenges to reach their proposed target as housebuilders are already under immense pressures to deliver 1.5 million homes before the next general election.
Faraz Baber, chief operating officer of Lanpro, said: ‘Land assembly is critical. Announcing locations before the land is secured risks inflating land values and creating expectations that cannot be met. Homes England needs to be front and centre of assembling land for these identified areas of growth to ensure the benefits of land value derived from the expected growth and infrastructure being delivered benefits the public purse.
‘Likewise, funding for infrastructure cannot rely on Community Infrastructure Levy alone. These are multi-billion-pound schemes that may require tax increment financing, strategic infrastructure funds and potentially compulsory purchase powers to unlock sites at scale.’
‘Support from existing communities is also an important part of the jigsaw. While this announcement is unequivocably good news for those of us who see the economic and development potential of new towns, it will alarm many residents who fear radical change to their communities,’ Baber continued. ‘Early consultation, honest dialogue and clear delivery plans are essential with both local residents and landowners: Mayoral development corporations in their inception have had a faltered start by not assembling the land once the red line was drawn – we should not make the same mistakes on these proposed new towns.
‘The ambition shown in the Taskforce’s proposals is welcome, specifically the fact that many of these proposed new towns considerably exceed the original target of 10,000 homes.’
In similar vein, Greg Reed, CEO of Places for People, added that the announcement of new towns is a ‘vital step towards addressing the UK’s housing crisis’, but claimed that getting spades in the ground will be far from easy.
‘To succeed with the next generation of new towns, government must now ensure legal and planning frameworks are robust, streamlined, and supportive of long-term delivery,’ Reed said. ‘As the prime minister said, we need unwavering commitment to sweep aside the blockers and get homes built.’
Photo by C Dustin via Unsplash
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