New Towns are making a comeback!
In July 2024 the Government released a policy statement proposing a new generation of New Towns to unlock economic growth, improve prosperity and living standards across England. They have set an ambitious goal to build 1.5 million homes over the next 5 years.
This is obviously the talk of the town (clever right?) in the planning and urban design realm, so yesterday I attended a conference held by the RTPI’s Urban Design Network, to learn about new towns of the past and share insight into how we should be designing new towns of the future.
Dr David Mountain, Research Manager at the RTPI and a specialist in post-war urban decentralisation, gave a talk on the evolution of New Towns. David took us back to their origins in 18th Century model villages and Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City Movement, before taking us through examples of post-war New Towns, such as Milton Keynes. Britian’s post-war new towns sought to decentralise urban populations into new centres outside of existing industrial cities. Discussions around “new town blues” arose in the comments and whether it was the result of their density. Does higher density and compact cities facilitate stronger social connections within communities? An interesting question and one that I hope to dive into in another blog post.
Map produced for the Commission for New Towns, 1969 (FJ 3/77) (Source: The National Archives)
Patrick Clarke, Masterplanning Lead at AECOM, took us through developments in urban design guidance and their influence on recent masterplans of today. We were shown how highway and road safety-led design schemes took over from placemaking at one point, but thankfully we’re now seeing more masterplans incorporate good urban design principles, such as permeability and a clear road hierarchy, to create quality places to live. Examples shown included Woodbrook eco-village in Lisburn and Welbourne Garden Village in Hampshire.
Patrick also highlighted the complexity in delivering a masterplan due to their multi-disciplinary nature, and recommended having an evidence-based and systematic masterplan process, as well as strong programme management to keep disciplines aligned and meeting deliverables.
Welborne Garden Village Masterplan (Source: Welborne.co.uk)
Lastly, we heard from Sowmya Parthasarathy, Director of Urban Design and Masterplanning at Arup and a New Towns Taskforce panel advisor. The New Towns Taskforce is “an independent expert advisory panel that was established in September 2024 to support the Government to deliver the next generation of new towns”.
Sowmya talked through the role of the panel and how they are currently working towards identifying sites for future new towns. Given the early stages in the taskforce, the panel are asking some initial questions to aid the site selection. Questions include:
What is a new town?
New towns have evolved since their beginnings in the 18th Century, so what defines a new town today and in the future? Are they freestanding towns, urban extensions, large brownfield developments, regenerated existing new towns, or all of the above? Defining what a new town is will help with the site selection.
What should the future new towns look and feel like?
Although new towns will provide homes to help address the housing shortage, they will also need to have the necessary services, infrastructure, and design quality to create a liveable place that supports their future communities. Sowmya suggested they should be mixed use and compact, with their own green and social infrastructure, to make them places in the own right.
Should new towns be held to the highest standard?
We can draw inspiration and learn lessons from success stories to ensure future new towns meet the highest possible design standards and quality. Projects like Aarhus, Hammerby Sjöstad and Malmö, exemplify high quality, affordable places that people want to spend time in.
However, while is it important to learn from past projects, I found it interesting to hear from David that there should still be an element of experimenting for future new towns. It got me thinking about the importance of contextual design and how if something works in one place, it does not mean it will work everywhere. Each future new town should be designed innovatively with adaptability to change as communities and needs change - by creating too much of a rigid set of design guidelines for all new towns, they risk becoming these “everywhere but nowhere places”, a phrase that Patrick Clarke used during his talk. New towns should speak to the context and have a unique identity. The speakers also recognised that the success of new towns will depend on delivery programming, early infrastructure, design quality, and long-term stewardship.
I really enjoyed attending my first RTPI Urban Design Network conference and putting my learning cap back on. I’m looking forward to seeing how the New Town Taskforce tackle this mighty task and progress with their site selection. Do you have any thoughts and comments on past or future new towns? Drop me a line below if so!
Glossary
Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) - leading membership organisation for Chartered planners, responsible for maintaining professional standards. Provide accreditation for planning courses and host events for continued professional development.
Sources:
New Towns Policy Statement: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/policy-statement-on-new-towns/policy-statement-on-new-towns
New Towns Taskforce: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/the-new-towns-taskforce
