As the new Labour Government eyes its 1.5 million housebuilding target the obvious question is where will these homes go? Following our recent article on the history of New Towns, this latest article explores what we consider New Towns could look like under the contemporary Labour agenda.
The New Towns Taskforce has been established to advise ministers on potential appropriate locations (set to be on low-quality green belt land known as ‘grey belt’) for these communities and will report back to ministers in 2025. The Taskforce launched a call for evidence in November to explore opportunities for large-scale developments, which are required to be submitted by 13 December this year.
New potential settlements must accommodate 10,000 homes or more with “a gold standard of 40% affordable housing.” These new towns must also be “well-connected, well-designed, sustainable and attractive places where people want to live and have all the infrastructure, amenities and services necessary to sustain thriving communities.”
The policy offers the Government, developers and the transport sector a real opportunity to deliver a new generation of well-connected, sustainable and healthy communities and avoid the car-centric traps of the post-war era original New Towns.
But what are the key factors that can make this potential a reality?
The new National Planning Policy Framework must prioritise housing development in areas that reduce car reliance, address gaps in regional transport accessibility, and support sustainable and vibrant communities. Development sites should be located close to existing public transport infrastructure and interchanges where possible.
New developments can be well designed internally, but a failure to ensure that these are sustainably connected to key destinations and transport interchanges will present a key barrier to achieving modal shift and could lead to further creation of “commuter towns”.
How can we make the right decisions on where to locate housing and transport infrastructure?
Dynamic simulation models such as Steer’s MESH (Mobility, Equity, Sustainability, Housing) model can unlock the intricate web of interactions between economic factors, people, employers, transportation and land uses. MESH offers a visionary approach to planning to provide a comprehensive understanding of how different elements can influence each other in specific approaches.
New Towns will need to be Vision Led with a shift away from highway capacity-led assumptions and a move towards ‘people capacity’ with a sustainable transport road user hierarchy: initially reducing the demand for travel, followed by pedestrian and cyclist needs, public transport and powered two-wheeler needs, all being prioritised above motor vehicles.
New Towns should be designed to achieve Active Travel England (ATE) objectives for 50% of short trips in England’s towns and cities to be walked, wheeled or cycled by 2030. Clear and enhanced policies will be required at all levels to encourage modal shift and reduce carbon emissions. The status quo of vehicle ownership needs to be broken, and we need an enhanced vision of what life looks like without a car. Rather than focusing on disincentives, we should create conditions whereby car ownership is no longer viewed as a necessity.
The findings from projects such as INFUZE, which examines how we can design a place where people do not need to own their own cars rather than looking at ways in which to stop people from using their cars, will be valuable moving forward. Many future home buyers are still developing their travel habits, and evidence suggests that the current generation is delaying taking their driving tests and showing no rush to purchase a personal vehicle. This new generation of homeowners empowered to use sustainable transport modes may demand a shift away from car-based development in any case.
Enhanced, more sustainably focused parking policies will also be required which achieve an equilibrium between preventing overspill car parking from developments and supporting modal shift. “Stick” measures such as reduced parking standards, car-free zones and increased long-stay parking fares near railway stations will need to be supplemented by “carrot” measures such as bus priority, high-quality walking and cycling facilities, car-clubs, travel planning, and incentives for new residents including financial contributions towards public transport fares and cycling initiatives.
On-plot parking should be minimised, and there should also be flexibility built into parking standards that enable parking demand within new developments to be monitored. This may include policies to enable unused parking spaces to be removed and converted to new public realm space as demand changes and parking policies evolve, or even for low parking initially with space reserved for communal parking areas, should demand not fall.
Master planning will play a key role in ensuring developments are well-connected and promote sustainable transport access.
A key priority should be to ensure New Towns include a range of land uses that are well integrated and reduce the demand for travel. Ensuring retail and neighbourhood centres are well-sited will be essential.
Higher density development could also be considered which would be easier to serve by sustainable transport networks by ensuring residents are close to public transport stops/ interchanges and high-quality walking and cycling infrastructure which are well connected to key surrounding destinations.
New Towns should be served by accessible and frequent bus routes which have priority over car-based modes that are not impeded by congestion or on-street car parking issues internally within developments or externally.
New Towns should also be developed to embrace innovation, new and emerging technologies and concepts such as mobility hubs, parking barns, micro-mobility and mobility as a service (MaaS). Mobility Hubs bring together shared transport measures with public transport and active travel in spaces designed to improve public realm for all users. They can be implemented at a range of scales and can include public transport interchanges and other facilities, including car/ bike sharing, cycle hire, electric vehicle charging, cycle parking/ charging, bike repair stations and lockers, delivery lockers, cafes/ co-working spaces, and high-quality public realm integration.
A lot has changed since the introduction of the original New Towns, and we have learnt many lessons, which must now be applied. However, it is also essential that there is a continuous evolution of transport planning principles to meet future challenges and embrace opportunities. Our next article will focus on the future vision for New Towns and New Mobility, which may shape how we move like never before!
Read our previous article on the history of New Towns here: New towns, old ideas: What can we learn from the history of new towns?
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