New towns in the United Kingdom

The new towns in the United Kingdom were planned under the powers of the New Towns Act 1946 (9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 68) and later acts to relocate people from poor or bombed-out housing following the Second World War. Designated new towns were placed under the supervision of a development corporation, and were developed in three waves. Later developments included the 'expanded towns': existing towns which were substantially expanded to accommodate what was called the "overspill" population from densely populated areas of deprivation.

Historical precedents

Park and fountain in Welwyn Garden City, one of the two Garden Cities that were later designated as new towns

Garden cities

Main article: Garden city movement

The concept of the "garden city" was first envisaged by Ebenezer Howard in his 1898 book To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, as an alternative to the pollution and overcrowding in Britain's growing urban areas. Taking inspiration from the model villages of Port Sunlight and Bournville, he saw garden cities as the "joyous union" of town and country, providing a much better quality of life for those who lived there.

Two garden cities were built – Letchworth, Hertfordshire in 1903, and Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire in 1920.

The underlying principles of garden cities (including community engagement, well designed housing, easily accessible recreational and shopping facilities, and an integrated transport network) were influential in the development of the post-war new towns movement.

Overspill estates

Main article: Overspill estate

An "overspill estate" is a housing estate planned and built for the housing of excess population in urban areas, both from the natural increase of population and often in order to rehouse people from decaying inner city areas, usually as part of the process of slum clearance. They were created on the outskirts of most large British towns and during most of the 20th century, with new towns being an alternative approach outside London after World War II. The objective of this was to bring more economic activity to these smaller communities, whilst relieving pressure on overpopulated areas of major cities.

• London County Council built housing developments affixed to towns outside its jurisdiction, of which Becontree, Dagenham (which became part of Greater London in 1965) was the largest. It was built in the 1920s and 1930s.
• Seacroft in Leeds was built from 1934 when Leeds City Council bought 1,000 acres (4.0 km²) for municipal housing. Most houses and blocks of flats were built after World War II. The council had planned for Seacroft to be a "satellite town within the city boundary"
• Wythenshawe was built on former rural land in the north of Cheshire between the 1920s and early 1970s to rehouse families from the inner city slums of Manchester as an overspill estate. Other Manchester overspill estates include Hattersley (mostly built during the 1960s), Gamesley, and Haughton Green.
• Castlemilk, Drumchapel, Easterhouse and Pollok in Glasgow.
• Castle Vale in Birmingham, which was built in the 1960s in the extreme north-east of the city.

List of new towns

England

First wave

Animated film by the Central Office of Information about post-war new towns and their planning

The first wave of independent new towns was intended to help alleviate the housing shortages following the Second World War, beyond the green belt around London. Two sites in County Durham were also designated. These designations were made under the New Towns Act 1946 (9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 68).

• Stevenage, Hertfordshire (designated 11 November 1946)
• Crawley, Sussex (designated 9 January 1947)
• Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire (designated 4 February 1947)
• Harlow, Essex (designated 25 March 1947)
• Newton Aycliffe, County Durham (designated 19 April 1947 as Aycliffe New Town)
• Peterlee, County Durham (designated 10 March 1948, as Easington New Town)
• Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, Hertfordshire (both designated 20 May 1948)
• Basildon, Essex (designated 4 January 1949)
• Bracknell, Berkshire (designated 17 June 1949)
• Corby, Northamptonshire (designated 1 April 1950)

Second wave

The town of Telford (formerly Dawley New Town) was created from a number of towns which were joined around a central service area.

The second wave (1961–1964) was likewise initiated to alleviate housing shortfalls. Two of the locations below (Redditch and Dawley New Town – later renamed Telford) are near the West Midlands conurbation and were designed for Birmingham and Wolverhampton overspill; another two (Runcorn and Skelmersdale) are near Merseyside and were intended as overspill for the city of Liverpool.

Telford Centre

• Skelmersdale, Lancashire (designated 9 October 1961)
• Dawley New Town, Shropshire (designated 16 January 1963)
• Redditch, Worcestershire (designated 10 April 1964)
• Runcorn, Cheshire (designated 10 April 1964)
• Washington, Tyne and Wear (designated 24 July 1964)

Third wave

New Town architecture in Peterborough

The third wave of new towns (1967–1970) allowed for additional growth, chiefly further north from the previous London new towns, among them "Central Lancashire New Town" and Warrington. Dawley New Town was redesignated as Telford New Town, with a much larger area, as overspill for Birmingham and nearby towns including Wolverhampton. With a target population of 250,000 and a planning brief to become the first "new city", the largest of these was Milton Keynes at the northern edge of the South East, about halfway between Birmingham and London. In the East Midlands, the existing town of Northampton was expanded. In East Anglia, the city of Peterborough was designated as a new town to accommodate overspill from London.

• Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire (designated 23 January 1967)
• Peterborough, Cambridgeshire (designated 21 July 1967)
• Northampton, Northamptonshire (designated 14 February 1968)
• Warrington, Cheshire (designated 26 April 1968), resulting in the Birchwood development
• Telford, Shropshire (designated 29 November 1968)
• Central Lancashire New Town, Lancashire (designated 26 March 1970), which covered a conurbation focused on the towns of Preston, Chorley and Leyland, and expanded Clayton-le-Woods into a larger urban area with the Clayton Brook development. Its area also included what are today large towns or villages, albeit they were smaller at the time of the new town designation: Bamber Bridge, Coppull, Penwortham and Euxton. It was initially planned to adjoin these areas into one city, with the name Redrose suggested, but after years of dissatisfaction with its progress amongst locals and politicians, its Development Corporation was ultimately disbanded in 1985 by the Thatcher government. Central Lancashire was retrospectively described as "more akin to an Urban Development Corporation" and "never intended to be recognised as a new town in its own right".

Yate and South Woodham Ferrers

Yate in Gloucestershire and South Woodham Ferrers in Essex were developed between the 1950s and 1970s, coinciding with the creation of the above new towns, and Yate pointedly marketed itself as a "new town" during the 1960s. However, they differ in that they were not commissioned by any of the New Town Acts.

Wales

• Cwmbran, Torfaen (designated 4 November 1949)
• Newtown, Powys (designated 18 December 1967)

Scotland

Six new towns in Scotland were designated between 1947 and 1973, mostly for the overspill population of Glasgow.

• East Kilbride (designated 6 May 1947)
• Glenrothes (designated 30 June 1948)
• Cumbernauld (designated 9 December 1955, extended 19 March 1973)
• Livingston (designated 16 April 1962)
• Irvine (designated 9 November 1966, and encompassing the existing settlement of Kilwinning)
• Stonehouse (designated 17 July 1973, de-designated in 1976 after fewer than 100 houses had been built)

Other major developments

• Blindwells: new settlement under construction between Tranent and Port Seton in East Lothian
• Chapelton of Elsick (in progress)
• Countesswells: partially constructed new settlement west of Aberdeen between Cults and Kingswells
• Dalgety Bay: a new town developed in the 1970s and 1980s in Fife
• Dargavel: new town being built on former BAE munitions works site adjacent to Bishopton in Renfrewshire
• Erskine and Inchinnan, new town developed in the 1970s and 1980s in Renfrewshire, initially by the Scottish Special Housing Association
• Ravenscraig: former steelworks site in North Lanarkshire (in progress)
• Shawfair: new settlement under construction in south-east Edinburgh spanning the City of Edinburgh Council and Midlothian Council administrative boundaries
• Tornagrain: a new town near Inverness (in progress)
• Tweedbank: village built in the 1970s on a greenfield site in the central Scottish Borders, initially by a government body, the Scottish Special Housing Association
• Winchburgh, West Lothian. Expansion from village to a new town.

Future developments

• Forestmill: new settlement proposed in Clackmannanshire in close proximity to the Fife Council administrative boundary
• Owenstown: new settlement proposed in the South Lanarkshire area to the south of Lanark

Northern Ireland

The New Towns Act (Northern Ireland) 1965 gave the Minister of Development of the Government of Northern Ireland the power to designate an area as a new town, and to appoint a development commission. An order could be made to transfer municipal functions of all or part of any existing local authorities to the commission, which took the additional title of urban district council, although unelected. This was done in the case of Craigavon.

The New Towns Amendment Act 1968 was passed to enable the establishment of the Londonderry Development Commission to replace the County Borough and rural district of Londonderry, and implement the Londonderry Area Plan. On 3 April 1969, the development commission took over the municipal functions of the two councils, the area becoming Londonderry Urban District.

• Craigavon (designated 26 July 1965)
• Antrim (designated 1966)
• Ballymena (designated 1967)
• Derry (designated 5 February 1969)

Other 'overspill' developments

During the same period as the new town scheme, several other towns underwent local authority led expansion as 'overspills' to larger urban areas, but were not officially designated as new towns, among these were:

• Cramlington, Northumberland – Newcastle
• Daventry, Northamptonshire – Birmingham
• Hattersley, Tameside – Manchester Corporation
• Killingworth, Tyne and Wear – Newcastle
• Kirkby, Merseyside – Liverpool
• Tamworth, Staffordshire – Birmingham
• Winsford, Cheshire – Liverpool & Manchester
• Stockbridge Village, Merseyside – Liverpool
• Gamesley, Derbyshire – Manchester

Subsequent town expansion schemes

No new towns have been designated under the New Towns Act in England since 1970 (and Scotland since 1973), but several new large scale developments have been founded:

• Ingleby Barwick, North Yorkshire
• Bradley Stoke, Gloucestershire
• Chafford Hundred, Grays, Essex
• Cambourne, Cambridgeshire
• Bar Hill, Cambridgeshire
• Ebbsfleet, Kent
• Kings Hill, Kent
• Wixams, Bedfordshire
• Sherford, Devon
• Northstowe, Cambridgeshire
• Cranbrook, Devon
• Long Marston Garden Village, Warwickshire
• Longcross Garden Village, Surrey
• Berinsfield Garden Village, Oxfordshire
• Dunton Hills Garden Village, West Horndon, Essex
• Nansledan, Newquay, Cornwall
• Welborne, Hampshire
• Maltkiln, North Yorkshire
• Otterpool Park, Kent

Poundbury is an experimental new town or urban extension on the outskirts of Dorchester. The development is built on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. It is built according to the principles of (then) Prince Charles, who was known for holding strong views challenging the post-war trends in town planning that were suburban in character.

Euxton has grown significantly following the Buckshaw Village development, described as "one of the largest brownfield schemes of its kind throughout Europe", and conceptualised as an eco-village. Further expansion is planned with another development, Euxton Heights. Ironically, although Euxton falls under what were the designated boundaries of Central Lancashire New Town, the decision to proceed with these developments is unrelated.

Future developments

On 13 May 2007, chancellor Gordon Brown, who became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom the following month, announced he would designate 10 new "eco-towns" to ease demand for low-cost housing. The towns, around 20,000 population each—at least 5,000 homes—are planned to be "carbon neutral" and will use locally generated sustainable-energy sources. Only one site was identified in the announcement: the former Oakington Barracks in Cambridgeshire, which is the site of the already-planned Northstowe development. Local councils will be invited to provide sites for the remaining four towns.

In September 2014, the CBI called for all political parties to commit to building 10 new towns and garden cities to get to grips with the country's housing shortage.

South East Faversham, a new settlement proposed by the Duchy of Cornwall adjacent to the M2 in Kent, was expected to undergo the planning process in 2023.

As of 2024, the government has outlined a list of proposed areas across England in which funding has been allocated for "garden villages" that could be built as extensions to existing urban areas, or for towns to receive new-build homes after acquiring "garden town" status. Garden towns and garden villages have been described as putting an emphasis on "funding for garden communities" and "putting green, wildlife friendly spaces at the heart of development". Didcot, Oxfordshire was one of the first to be awarded garden town status in 2015. Amongst the towns expected to see the most dynamic population growth after developments are Didcot, Harlow and Gilston as part of a joint garden town project, Taunton and Cullompton.

Finance

The financial model was for many years as follows: an area of countryside was designated as a new town under the act; land was bought from the owners at agricultural prices; the government borrowed to invest in housing, commercial premises, and supporting infrastructure such as sewers, schools, churches or open spaces; and in due course it sold off the commercial premises and part of the housing at developed prices, thus paying off the debt. This model ran into some difficulty in the 1970s as growing inflation increased the cost of new borrowing, and this complicated the impact of the programme on public finances. The corporations were in due course dissolved and their assets split between local authorities and, in England, the Commission for New Towns (later English Partnerships).

Legacy

In July 2002, the Select Committee on Transport, Local Government and the Regions assessed the effectiveness of the new towns and concluded that:

While many New Towns have been economically successful, most now are experiencing major problems. Their design is inappropriate to the 21st Century. Their infrastructure is ageing at the same rate and many have social and economic problems. Many are small local authorities which do not have the capacity to resolve their problems. Their attempts to manage the towns are complicated by the role played by English Partnerships which still has major landholdings and other outstanding interests.

and:

The new towns are no longer new and many of the quickly built houses have reached the end of their design life. The masterplans dictated low density development with large amounts of open space, and housing segregated from jobs, shopping and business services. These created a car dependency and are now not considered sustainable. Low density developments are expensive to maintain. Roads and sewers are in need of expensive upgrades.

The lack of social ties experienced by some residents of the new towns has given rise to the notion of "new town blues".

See also

• New towns movement
• London overspill
• Town and Country Planning Association

Elsewhere:

• List of planned cities
• New towns of Hong Kong
• New towns of Singapore

Further reading

• "Select Committee on Transport, Local Government and the Regions Nineteenth Report". Select Committee on Transport, Local Government and the Regions. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2016. licensed under Open Government Licence
• A commentary by the Government of Northern Ireland to accompany the Cameron Report incorporating an account of progress and a programme of action, CAIN web service, 1969