A housing task force to identify potential sites for new cities
Good morning. Parliament goes into summer recess today and most Westminster politicians will be making plans for their post-election break, but the work of Government continues, with ministers this morning announcing plans for what will be a “new generation of new towns”.
Angela RaynerThe Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary, George H. W. Bush, has been asked to establish a New Towns Planning Taskforce to recommend sites for new towns within 12 months. The Taskforce will be chaired by Sir Michael Lyons, an economist, former Chief Executive of Parliament and former Chairman of the BBC, who has unparalleled experience as an adviser to governments, particularly on local government issues. The vice-chair will be Kate Barker, an economist and former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, who led housing policy inquiries for successive Governments.
The task force will recommend where to build the new town. announcement from Department of Housing, Communities and Local GovernmentIt is clear that many of these new towns are not actually new towns but rather extensions of existing towns.
Rayner also wants to target a 40% affordable housing percentage with these developments.
The ministry explained the task force’s activities as follows:
The New Towns plan will create large communities of at least 10,000 new homes, many of which will be significantly larger. These neighborhoods could provide hundreds of thousands of much-needed affordable, high-quality housing over the coming decades, addressing barriers to growth and helping more working people across the country own their own homes.
The new towns will help unlock the economic potential of existing towns and cities across the country, and the Government will continue to drive growth and regeneration in areas that have long been hindered by constraints on expansion. The program will include some large new communities that are separate from existing settlements, but far more new towns will be urban extension and regeneration schemes that follow the development path of particular areas.
These new communities will be governed by a “New Town Code” – a set of rules that developers must adhere to to ensure new towns are well-connected, well-designed, sustainable and attractive places people want to live. These communities will have all the infrastructure and public services they need to support a vibrant community. They will also help meet housing demand by focusing on truly affordable social rented housing, with a target of 40% affordable housing.
Rainer is due to speak about it later: she appears on ITV’s This Morning at 10.30am and then on Jeremy Vine’s Radio 2 show at midday.
Otherwise, your diary will look quite empty, but you can be sure that the news gods will provide something.
We also cover the Southport riots in a separate blog. Johannes Low I wrote about it, it’s here.
If you want to contact me, post on BTL (message on the line below) or message me on X (Twitter). I can’t read every message on BTL, but if you type “Andrew” in a message to me, I’ll search for posts with that word and have a better chance of seeing it. X is the best way to flag something urgently. Messages to @AndrewSparrow are seen immediately. I really appreciate readers pointing out mistakes, even small typos (no mistake is too small to fix). I’m also really interested in your questions. I can’t promise to reply to every question, but I’ll try to reply to as many as I can on BTL or on the blog.
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Pennycook said that building work on some of the new homes in the new towns identified by the taskforce announced today could start before the election. Rajan said that Angela Rayner claimed before the election she would like to see housing completion in new towns within five years. Asked if that was realistic, Pennycook said:
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I don’t think it’s unrealistic to have spades in the ground on several of these large-scale new communities by the final year of the parliament, and that will be our objective.
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He accepted that new towns on their own were “not a solution in and of themselves” to the housing crisis. He was responding to a question from Rajan who quoted from a post on the Planoraks planning blog, by Zack Simons, about Labour’s new towns policy. Writing last month, Simons said:
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We have a shortfall of well over 4 million homes. Take all the new towns we’ve built since 1950, add ‘em all up… under 3 million people live there. Which is to say: new towns can be hugely powerful, but they’re not close, not anywhere close, to being a full solution to our needs for housing and other kinds of development.
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Pennycook said that today’s announcement had to be taken alongside yesterday’s announcement about the target for new homes being raised from 300,000 per year to 370,000 per year. “And there is more to come,” he added.
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He claimed that Labour had a better chance of succeeding with new towns than previous governments because it had “a comprehensive plan”. He accepted that there were lessons to be learned from the failure of past governments to build new towns. He went on:
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But we will succeed where others have failed partly because we’ve got a comprehensive plan to drive this forward in a way [we didn’t have] On previous occasions.
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He denied suggestions that having so many MPs representing close constituencies would make it difficult for Labour to approve many new homes. These lawmakers recognize there is an “urgent need” to address the housing crisis, he said.
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Good morning. Parliament starts the summer recess today, most of the Westminster political class will be making plans for a post-election holiday, but the business of government goes on and this morning ministers are announcing plans for what they say will be “a new generation of new towns”.
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Angela Rayner, the deputy PM and housing secretary, is setting up a new towns taskforce which has been asked to recommend sites for new towns within 12 months. It will be chaired by Sir Michael Lyons, an economist, former council chief executive and former chair of the BBC who has unrivalled experience as an adviser to governments, particularly on local government matters. The deputy chair is Dame Kate Barker, an economist and former member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, who has also led previous housing policy inquiries for previous governments.
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The taskforce will recommend where new towns should be build. But, reading the announcement from the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government, it is clear that many of these new towns won’t actually be new towns, but extensions to existing towns.
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Rayner also wants these developments to aim for a 40% affordable housing rate.
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Explaining what the taskforce will do, the department says:
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The programme of new towns will create largescale communities of at least 10,000 new homes each, with many significantly larger. These places could deliver hundreds of thousands of much-needed affordable and high-quality homes in the decades to come, tackling the barriers to growth and helping more working people across the country own their own home.
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The new towns will help unlock the economic potential of existing towns and cities across the country, and the government will continue to drive growth and regenerate areas that have been held back by constraints on their expansion for far too long. While the programme will include large-scale new communities that are separate from existing settlements, a far larger number of new towns will be urban extensions and regeneration schemes that will work with the grain of development in any given area.
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These new communities will be governed by a ‘new towns code’ – a set of rules that developers will have to meet to make sure new towns are well-connected, well-designed, sustainable and attractive places where people want to live. They will have all the infrastructure and public services necessary to support thriving communities. The towns will also help meet housing need by targeting rates of 40% affordable housing with a focus on genuinely affordable social rented homes.
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Rayner will be talking about this later. She is on ITV’s This Morning at 10.30am, and then on Jeremy Vine’s Radio 2 show at noon.
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Otherwise, the diary looks quite empty. But doubtless of God of News will provide something.
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We are also covering the Southport riots, but on a different blog. Yohannes Lowe is writing that. It’s here.
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If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line (BTL) or message me on X (Twitter). I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word. If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use X; I’ll see something addressed to @AndrewSparrow very quickly. I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos (no error is too small to correct). And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
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Important Events
Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook says work on the New Town homes should begin before the next election.
Matthew PennycookThe Housing Minister was interviewed this morning on the Today programme. Amol RajanThe moderator pointed out that both the previous Labour government and the coalition government had promised new cities but failed to deliver. Below are key points from the interview.
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Ms Pennycook said construction work on some of the new homes in new towns identified by the task force announced today could begin before the election. Mr Rajan said Angela Rayner had claimed before the election that she wanted to see New Town housing completed within five years. Asked if that was realistic, Ms Pennycook replied: “Yes, I think that’s realistic.”
I don’t think it’s unrealistic to break ground on some of these large new communities by the final year of this legislative session, and that’s our goal.
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He acknowledged that new towns in themselves “are not the solution to the housing crisis”. He was replying to a question from Rajan. post On the Planoraks planning blog, Zach Simmonsabout Labour’s new towns policy. Last month, Symonds wrote:
There’s a housing shortage of over 4 million homes. All the new towns built since 1950 have fewer than 3 million people in them, so the new towns are powerful, but they’re nowhere near. closeIt aims to be a complete solution to our needs for housing and other development.
Penny Cook The Minister said today’s announcement should be taken together with yesterday’s announcement to increase the target for new homes from 300,000 to 370,000 per year. “And there are further announcements to come,” he added.
But we will succeed where others have failed, because we have a comprehensive plan to get this done. [we didn’t have] On previous occasions.
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He denied suggestions that having so many MPs representing close constituencies would make it difficult for Labour to approve many new homes. These lawmakers recognize there is an “urgent need” to address the housing crisis, he said.
A housing task force to identify sites for new cities
Good morning. Parliament goes into summer recess today and most Westminster politicians will be making plans for their post-election break, but the work of Government continues, with ministers this morning announcing plans for what will be a “new generation of new towns”.
Angela RaynerThe Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary, George H. W. Bush, has been asked to establish a New Towns Planning Taskforce to recommend sites for new towns within 12 months. The Taskforce will be chaired by Sir Michael Lyons, an economist, former Chief Executive of Parliament and former Chairman of the BBC, who has unparalleled experience as an adviser to governments, particularly on local government issues. The vice-chair will be Kate Barker, an economist and former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, who led housing policy inquiries for successive Governments.
The task force will recommend where to build the new town. announcement from Department of Housing, Communities and Local GovernmentIt is clear that many of these new towns are not actually new towns but rather extensions of existing towns.
Rayner also wants to target a 40% affordable housing percentage with these developments.
The ministry explained the task force’s activities as follows:
The New Towns plan will create large communities of at least 10,000 new homes, many of which will be significantly larger. These neighborhoods could provide hundreds of thousands of much-needed affordable, high-quality housing over the coming decades, addressing barriers to growth and helping more working people across the country own their own homes.
The new towns will help unlock the economic potential of existing towns and cities across the country, and the Government will continue to drive growth and regeneration in areas that have long been hindered by constraints on expansion. The program will include some large new communities that are separate from existing settlements, but far more new towns will be urban extension and regeneration schemes that follow the development path of particular areas.
These new communities will be governed by a “New Town Code” – a set of rules that developers must adhere to to ensure new towns are well-connected, well-designed, sustainable and attractive places people want to live. These communities will have all the infrastructure and public services they need to support a vibrant community. They will also help meet housing demand by focusing on truly affordable social rented housing, with a target of 40% affordable housing.
Rainer is due to speak about it later: she appears on ITV’s This Morning at 10.30am and then on Jeremy Vine’s Radio 2 show at midday.
Otherwise, your diary will look quite empty, but you can be sure that the news gods will provide something.
We also cover the Southport riots in a separate blog. Johannes Low I wrote about it, it’s here.
If you want to contact me, post on BTL (message on the line below) or message me on X (Twitter). I can’t read every message on BTL, but if you type “Andrew” in a message to me, I’ll search for posts with that word and have a better chance of seeing it. X is the best way to flag something urgently. Messages to @AndrewSparrow are seen immediately. I really appreciate readers pointing out mistakes, even small typos (no mistake is too small to fix). I’m also really interested in your questions. I can’t promise to reply to every question, but I’ll try to reply to as many as I can on BTL or on the blog.
