According to my passport, I was born in Peterlee, County Durham – one of the original new towns established under the New Towns Act 1946. I say “according to my passport” because I was actually born in a maternity hospital in a village close by - but what’s a local government boundary change between friends. What this is building up to saying is that in 2026, the year in which I plan to retire, I’m pleased to be writing about a consultation on another wave of new towns.
As my colleague Haitham Salih recently posted on LinkedIn, 7 of the locations for new towns are proposed to be taken forward from the 12 potential locations included within the New Towns Taskforce report published in September 2025.
The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Report considered over 100 locations against their ability to meet the key objectives of the New Towns Programme (the programme) (scale, economic growth, spread across England, deliverability and placemaking). The report found that all 12 of the original list are capable of meeting the programme’s objectives – plus a 13th. However, in order to prioritise and focus resources, only the 7 named locations are coming forward (at least for now) in the programme and of the 7, 3 are earmarked for “priority interventions”. These are: Crews Hill/Chase Park, Leeds South Bank and Tempsford.
The government proposes a support “package” to be made available to the named locations potentially combining funding, delivery expertise and policy support, tailored to the needs of the location. Funding might take the form of grant monies, equity investment and/or loans for a range of inputs including “enabling infrastructure and placemaking” and advice and support will be made available to ensure the most appropriate delivery vehicle – which may be a development corporation where appropriate.
There'll be a New Towns Planning Policy and a New Towns Place Review Panel to provide advice to delivery bodies and planning authorities. The proposed policy has been published as an appendix to the consultation and states very clearly that “substantial weight should be given to the social and economic benefits of new towns when considering proposals for their development” and goes on to add that “development proposals within identified new town areas should be consistent with the New Towns Placemaking Principles and any emerging or adopted masterplan and design code for the new town”. The identified new town areas also have a level of safeguarding because: “development proposals in identified new town areas should be refused if they would have a clear adverse effect on the proposed scale, location or phasing of new town proposals and development proposals outside of new town areas should not have an adverse impact on the delivery of new towns”.
The New Towns Placemaking Principles are: vision-led; ambitious density; affordable housing and balanced communities; social infrastructure; healthy and safe places; environmental sustainability; transport connectivity; business creation and employment opportunities; stewardship and community engagement. There is no doubt this is an ambitious ask.
I sign off by going back where I began. I think I'm right in saying that of all (at least of the first wave) of the existing new towns, Peterlee was unique in being requested by local people (wanting better quality homes) through their MP who lobbied the relevant minister. If only...
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