Among them is a 15,000-home development in Manchester
The Victoria North project is already under way(Image: FEC)
Two sites in and around Greater Manchester have been identified among the first 12 ‘new towns’ to be built under Labour. The government is hoping that these developments of 10,000 homes or more will help it hit its target of building 1.5m homes by 2029.
Housing secretary Steve Reed is set to announce the first 12 ‘new towns’ to be taken forward during a speech at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool this afternoon (September 28). However, work on just three of these sites will begin during this Parliament.
Among the schemes on the list is the Victoria North development which is located between Manchester city centre and Collyhurst where 15,000 new homes are planned across seven neighbourhoods with many of the new residential properties set to be ‘affordable’.
Work on this huge 20-year project is already well under way with the first new council estate at Collyhurst Village recently completed.
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Also on the list of the first 12 ‘new towns’ is Adlington in Cheshire where a ‘standalone settlement’ will ‘serve’ Greater Manchester too.
Meanwhile, new towns in Tempsford in Bedfordshire, Crews Hill in Enfield, London and Leeds Southbank in West Yorkshire have been identified as the ‘most promising locations’ with work set to begin during this Parliament which will conclude by no later than 2029.
It comes after the New Towns Taskforce, set up after the general election last year, recommended 12 locations to be taken forward.
These new towns will ‘take lessons’ from the post-war housing boom, Labour says, and help ‘restore the dream of home ownership’.
Labour has vowed to ‘mobilise the power of the state’ to get behind these schemes and ‘do whatever it takes to get Britain building’.
As part of this, a ‘New Towns Unit’ will be established to ‘fast-track’ developments and ‘support the investment of millions of pounds’.
This includes public and private sector funding to build ‘exemplary communities with first-class local facilities’ including GP surgeries, schools, green spaces, libraries and transport, with ‘world class architects’ set to plan each new town with their own unique identity.
Speaking ahead of the announcement, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “For so many families, homeownership is a distant dream.
“My Labour Government will sweep aside the blockers to get homes built, building the next generation of new towns.
“This is national renewal in action, building Britain’s future and giving the key to home ownership to young families across the country as part of the Plan for Change.”