{"id":13719,"date":"2026-04-14T07:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T07:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/13719\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T07:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T07:35:12","slug":"britains-latest-new-towns-wont-be-new-towns-and-thats-a-good-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/13719\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain\u2019s latest new towns won\u2019t be new towns. And that\u2019s a good thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t generally play for laughs, but I got one anyway at Design West<\/a>\u2019s Arnolfini conference on Labour\u2019s then-new housing plans. I had urged the audience not to hold their breath waiting for the 12 promised new towns \u2013 we still haven\u2019t finished the ones Richard Crossman began in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, we needn\u2019t have worried because of the seven finally announced<\/a>, all but one are not new towns at all, but much more sensible urban extensions.<\/p>\n

Housing ministers seem unable to resist Ebenezer Howard\u2019s romantic vision in the garden city movement of \u2018restoring the people to the land\u2019 as the cure for social ills. Today\u2019s half\u2011hearted imitations borrow only the rhetoric of garden cities, ignoring Howard\u2019s business model in which land value uplift was captured and reinvested in the community. They are built in unsuitable locations \u2013 disused airfields and power station sites \u2013 wherever the government happens to own land.<\/p>\n

Urban extensions, by contrast, are based on a far more rational strategy, even if they come with more local opposition than isolated rural sites. They can plug into existing infrastructure, reinforce the viability of shops and services, and achieve real sustainability \u2013 if designed at higher densities, on biophilic principles and with proper walking and cycling connections. Poundbury in Dorchester and New Addington in Cambridge show what can be achieved when design quality is taken seriously from the outset.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2018Lower\u2011density greenfield extensions cannot deliver sustainable neighbourhoods if they are designed through speculative plotting\u2019<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s promise of \u2018well\u2011connected new communities\u2019 with \u2018homes, jobs, schools, green space and transport links planned from the start\u2019 is, of course, the bare minimum. These phrases seem intended to head off public anxiety rooted in memories of new town blues and early social isolation. But reassurance is not the same as delivery, and here lies the danger.<\/p>\n

Despite the abolition of design watchdog CABE<\/a> and, more recently, the Office for Place, the government does still have sound design guidance. The recently published draft Design and Placemaking Planning Practice Guidance \u2013 derived from the National Model Design Code developed under Andy von Bradsky\u2019s leadership \u2013 is the best we\u2019ve had since the Urban Design Compendium.<\/p>\n

But guidance, no matter how good, achieves nothing if it is optional, inconsistently applied or ignored. And without clear national leadership on design, local authorities are left under-resourced, housebuilders default to lowest\u2011effort plotting, and standards slip.<\/p>\n

That is why longstanding colleagues, including von Bradsky, and I have published Placemaking NOT Plotting<\/a> \u2013 a timely intervention calling for modest but effective changes to the planning system. Not another upheaval, but six practical steps that link demonstrable design quality to a faster, more reliable approvals process.<\/p>\n

The report was initially commissioned by members of the House of Lords for use in scrutinising legislation and developed alongside civil servants at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) to explore mechanisms for improving quality. It is, in essence, a recovery plan for design leadership in England.<\/p>\n

It argues that the lower\u2011density greenfield extensions that will supply much of our future housing cannot deliver sustainable, well\u2011connected neighbourhoods if they continue to be designed through speculative \u2018plotting\u2019 \u2013 a method that prioritises the sales value of individual homes over the character and function of the neighbourhood. Disjointed geometries, over\u2011engineered roads and car\u2011dependent layouts are not accidents, but the output of a system optimised for plot value, not place value.<\/p>\n

Placemaking is the alternative \u2013 a holistic approach that considers layout, density, mix of uses, movement networks, social and green infrastructure and long\u2011term stewardship as a single, coherent proposition.<\/p>\n

The recommendations in our report show how national guidance could be given real weight, how masterplans and design codes could be required earlier, how design review could be embedded, and how compliance could be rewarded with quicker, more predictable approval. This is not about adding process; it is about replacing uncertainty with clarity, raising standards without slowing delivery and ensuring communities see real benefits rather than familiar sprawl.<\/p>\n

In our response to the recent MHCLG design consultations, we urged the government to build on the promising direction set out \u2013 but to go further, faster. What we now need is a new generation of street\u2011based urbanism that is landscape\u2011rich, biodiverse, mixed\u2011use and properly connected. The opportunity for a legacy of sustainable suburban development fit for the mid-21st\u00a0century should not be wasted.<\/p>\n

Ben Derbyshire is chair at HTA Design and a former RIBA president<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I don\u2019t generally play for laughs, but I got one anyway at Design West\u2019s Arnolfini conference on Labour\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,6349,6350,6351,1834],"class_list":{"0":"post-13719","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-design-quality","10":"tag-new-towns","11":"tag-placemaking","12":"tag-planning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116401912188250053","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}