It will be the biggest expansion of Bristol in a generation – and probably the biggest since the building of the post-war council estates.
But rather than a city coming together to build new homes and communities for Bristolians displaced by the war and the slum clearances, the five new towns that have been announced in just the last couple of months will be built by private developers, in tandem with local councils, a regional mayor and a Government ambitiously hoping to kickstart economic growth and solve the housing crisis at the same time.
From the slopes of Dundry to the flat fields around the M4, and from the concrete runway at Filton to one of Bristol’s busiest roundabouts, tens of thousands of homes are being ‘masterplanned’, consulted on and proposed, as the great downhill juggernaut of the planning process begins to roll.
What has kickstarted it now is twofold. Firstly, all four of our local authorities have nearly finished a job they have to do every ten years – draw up a Local Plan, which decides whether land can be built on or not.
That has coincided with a new Government, which since it was elected less than two years ago, has promised to ‘get Britain building’. The housing minister campaigns with Trump-style red baseball caps emblazoned with the slogan ‘build baby build’, while those who decry the loss of green spaces, wildlife habitats and the environment, are slammed as NIMBYs who care more about bats and newts than people.
Whereas previous Labour and Conservative Governments have quietly allowed piecemeal expansion with a few hundred houses here and there, fields on the map being infilled, the new Labour Government has brought back a much more ambitious and bigger idea from the 1950s – New Towns.
So while developers may well have been limited to adding on a 300-home cul-de-sac estate to the edge of a city, now they are being encouraged to build entirely new towns and communities, with 3,000, 5,000 or even 10,000 new homes.
And Bristol is at the forefront of this new wave. On Thursday, metro mayors came to London to meet with the Prime Minister and the message was clear – go for more, bigger new towns, and override any local councils who try to stop it.
In the West of England, Labour metro mayor Helen Godwin is a huge fan, and the West of England Combined Authority – made up of the councils from Bristol, North Somerset, Bath & North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire – are on board too.
West of England metro mayor Helen Godwin (Image: Copyright Unknown)
So the outskirts of Bristol has not one or two but five locations where new towns or major development is being created. They have already been named, or are going by a collection of proposed names.
The old Filton Airfield has already been renamed Brabazon, the area around Bristol Parkway is on the list, and then there’s a thing called the Western Innovation Arc, which includes the first two but also includes something called the North Lyde Eco-Tech Village.
This will stretch from Bristol’s last substantial extension of Emersons Green all the way over the other side of the M4 to Westerleigh, a village perhaps best known for its crematorium and its controversial pig slaughterhouse.
Further round the A4174 ring road will be Hicks Gate. Bristol Live revealed just last week that a WECA ‘masterplan’ for the fields between Bristol and Keynsham will be turned into a new town, centred around a transport hub close to the roundabout that is currently one of Bristol’s busiest.
And, finally, the other end of Bristol’s de-facto ring road – which isn’t really a complete circle at all – will be Woodspring.
Last week, Bristol Live revealed Taylor Wimpey were about to propose almost 3,000 new homes and an entirely new town complete with two primary schools, a secondary school, a town centre with shops, cafes and a doctors’ surgery, either side of the A38 road just as it leaves Bristol and heads up the hill to Bristol Airport.
There have been plans, rumours and assumptions that Woodspring Golf Club would one day be developed for years – it’s been no secret that the owners of the land the golf club is on had done a preliminary deal with Taylor Wimpey for years.
The plans for the new town of Woodspring, south of Bristol were unveiled at a consultation event at Woodspring Golf Club – pictured – which would be redeveloped.(Image: Bristol Post)
So the residents of the villages around – Dundry, Barrow Gurney, Long Ashton, Yanley – and for the people who live on Bristol’s southern edge in places like Highridge, Withywood and Bishopsworth – always suspected the day would eventually come when they would be looking at plans for a new town on their doorstep.
And that day was the first Tuesday of June, 2026. From 2.30pm, they filed in to the room on the other side of the bar at Woodspring Golf Club to view the panels with maps and diagrams and warm words about creating a new community, new transport links, new services.
Among them was their local councillor, Annemieke Waite. She represents a vast area from the edge of Bristol Airport to the edge of Bristol and from Flax Bourton to Dundry, and months ago called a mini planning conference just for local residents, to hear their hopes and fears for the new town.
“As a Green councillor, my instinct is always to protect green fields and countryside from development,” she said. “But I’m also a pragmatist. The Labour Government insists that we build 24,000 homes. Given that, my focus is on ensuring that what is built here becomes a genuine community, rather than simply another housing estate on the edge of Bristol,” she said.
The plans for the new town of Woodspring, south of Bristol were unveiled at a consultation event at Woodspring Golf Club which would be redeveloped. Pictured is local councillor Annemieke Waite (Green, Winford), who is also the cabinet member for planning and environment(Image: Bristol Post)
Cllr Waite also happens to be the cabinet member responsible for planning and the environment, and has been talking to Taylor Wimpey for a long time about the Woodspring new town before they even reach this point.
“Working with Taylor Wimpey so far has been positive,” she said. “They have been collaborative and willing to listen to local concerns. It’s important that we work together to create a place that meets the needs of a wide range of people, with a genuine mix of housing types rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
“We need to create a community where people are not dependent on cars, where walking, cycling and high-quality public transport are realistic and attractive options. If development is going to happen, then it should set a new standard for sustainable living, with low-carbon, energy-efficient homes, excellent public transport and neighbourhoods designed around people rather than cars.
“We have an opportunity to create a place where people of all ages and backgrounds can live, work and thrive, while helping to meet our net zero ambitions and reducing household energy costs. At this stage, I’m encouraged that the plans are moving in that direction, and I’m determined to keep working to ensure the development delivers a sustainable, well-connected community that existing and future residents can be proud of,” she added.
As the afternoon turned into the evening, more than 200 people were counted through the door. People coming after work to check out the plans and give their feedback. Friends Pat and Elaine have lived in the area for years – Elaine’s back garden at Barrow Common borders the south-eastern tip of the new development area.
The plans for the new town of Woodspring, south of Bristol were unveiled at a consultation event at Woodspring Golf Club – pictured – which would be redeveloped.(Image: Bristol Post)
They had mixed feelings about what will be the biggest change to their corner of North Somerset since Bristol expanded into it back in the 1950s.
“I like the idea of the walkways through green spaces and I like the fact there’ll be community hubs – it will be good to get more things to do and more services up around here,” said Elaine.
“And I understand people have to got to live somewhere,” chipped in Pat. “I’ve got children and they’ve all had to move away, living in different cities, and it’s really hard for younger people to find somewhere to live,” she added.
But the pair both said their biggest concern was about traffic. “But I just look at these plans and think ‘oh my god, what will that mean for the A38’. It’s already an absolute nightmare most of the time. Then you’ve got the airport expanding now, and again in the future, probably,” said Elaine.
“It’s a single lane road that is already chocka every day. What is putting 3,000 homes either side of it here going to do? It just seems mad,” she added.
Transport and what the developers and planners call ‘connectivity’ is a major issue for all the new towns – how do you build tens of thousands of homes, create new communities, and not substantially increase the number of private cars on the already congested roads around the city.
It’s less of an issue with the other great housing boom going on already in Bristol. The flats and student accommodation springing up from St Jude’s to Bedminster don’t have car parking spaces, and the expectation is that the, generally younger, people moving into the build-to-rent flats in the inner city won’t own cars.
But that’s more of a problem when you’re building new towns in the fields of South Gloucestershire or North Somerset.
Plans for a new town called Woodspring, to be built between south west Bristol and the Barrow Gurney reservoirs, either side of the A38.
The plans show the A38 would be diverted south of its current route to a junction with a new road – marked in blue – that would provide bus-only access to the South Bristol Link Road.(Image: Taylor Wimpey)
So metro mayor Helen Godwin’s vision – as spelled out in the ‘transport vision’ launched earlier this year, and in the ‘masterplan’ for the new town at Hicks Gate – is that the new towns will be connected to each other and the rest of the city by the long-promised mass transit system.
What that looks like hasn’t been confirmed yet, but imagine a tram line running from Brabazon all the way around the ring road to the new towns at Bristol Parkway, Lyde Green and round to Hicks Gate, joining up with a new Bristol to Bath mass transit route, while the residents of Woodspring find themselves living near a mass transit system between Bristol Airport and the city centre.
The five new towns around BristolBrabazon
A CGI image of what the new ‘Brabazon’ new town will look like at the former Filton airfield site north of Bristol(Image: Bromford Housing Association)
The most well-established plan, there are already new homes going up at either end of the old runway at Filton Airfield, construction of the new arena has finally begun, and a new Brabazon train station is nearing completion.
You can read more about Brabazon new town here
Bristol Parkway
The land around Bristol Parkway saw Stoke Gifford and Bradley Stoke created in the 1980s, and the last part to be infilled looks set to be to the west of the M32 and M4 around Hambrook Lane and the Stoke Gifford bypass.
It’s being put together in something called the Western Innovation Arc, along with…
North Lyde Eco-Tech village
North Lyde Eco Tech Village will extend the urban area of Bristol to the north of the M4 for the first time. It will be created on what is currently, in 2025, Green Belt land inside a triangle formed by the M4, Westerleigh Road and the railway line spur from Yate. Thousands of homes, an extension to the Bristol & Bath Science Park, a new school and areas of green spaces will be created.(Image: South Gloucestershire Council)
For the first time, this will see the limit of urban Bristol extend north of the M4, with what is currently Emersons Green and Lyde Green extend northwards, over the motorway towards Westerleigh.
The Metro Mayor and WECA has raised the possibility of creating a Mayoral Development Zone, which will give extra power to her and a delivery body made up of local councils and developers in partnership, to kickstart this development.
The North Lyde Eco-Tech village already has its developer in place, and South Gloucestershire Council is in favour – allocating the land in the new Local Plan for development.
You can read more about what is planned with the Eco-Tech Village here.
Hicks Gate
A map showing the plan for the new Hicks Gate new town, which could include more than 3,000 new homes – taken from the Hicks Gate Masterplan
This one outlines urban centres with a red dot, and the location of two primary schools, in purple(Image: WECA)
The land between Bristol – specifically Brislington and Stockwood – and Keynsham is currently fields, but would become a new town that straddles the Bristol-B&NES border, with homes built around a town centre and transport hub, at the junction of the ring road and the main Bristol-Bath mass transit ‘corridor’.
Bristol Live revealed that a WECA Masterplan has been created for this new town last week – read more about Hicks Gate here.
Woodspring
The plans for the new town of Woodspring, south of Bristol.(Image: Bristol Post)
Separate to the other four, which are all being driven or facilitated by the West of England Combined Authority, Woodspring is in North Somerset which isn’t, yet, part of the metro mayor territory.
North Somerset Council has opened up this land either side of the A38 in its emerging Local Plan, and the time has now come for the developers to show what they want to do on land they have been quietly buying up or getting options on, for years.
Again, its location on the main route between Bristol and Bristol Airport will be seen as key, and Bristol Live revealed earlier this year that Metro Mayor Helen Godwin said it was likely that any mass transit between the airport and the city would have come with huge development on the route.
You can read more about Woodspring here.