1 Introduction
The establishment of 22 new towns between 1946
and 1970 was an ambitious programme to provide new homes and jobs
following the last World War. It was based on the ideals developed
earlier in the century by Ebenezer Howard's garden city movement,
which sought to create better environments for people away from
the smog and cramped conditions in inner urban areas…
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.[1]
1. So began our predecessor Transport, Local
Government and the Regions Committee's Report of 2002 on The New
Towns: their Problems and Future. That Report was a comprehensive
review of the issues facing the 22 New Towns for which the Department
had responsibility.[2]
Our predecessors considered the current state of the New Towns;
the regeneration and management strategies which were in place
to address their needs; and the changes in Government policy towards
the New Towns which were necessary to ensure an appropriate legacy
from this major programme of post-war public investment.
2. In January last year, Professor David Lock,
Chair of the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), wrote
to our Chair asking the Committee to "pick up the trail"
of our predecessors' Report. Professor Lock wrote:
[Some time back] the [Transport, Local Government
and the Regions] Committee carried out an investigation into the
New Towns […]. One key recommendation was that the New Town
experience should be researched and lessons learned, as this had
never been done.
The government, after a long delay and evidently
with some reluctance, agreed.
The task was delegated by [the then Office of the
Deputy Prime Minister] to English Partnerships. After much dragging
of feet they finally got round to commissioning a stage 1 "desk
study" of the literature which was carried out by Oxford
Brookes University and not properly published last year (you have
to know it exists in order to ask for it).
The Town and Country Planning Association […]
has always been at the heart of the New Town movement, and we
are dismayed that the investment by successive governments in
32 New Towns has never properly been examined. Further, we are
dismayed that the stimulus given by the House of Commons has been
allowed to run into the sand. With growth areas, many town expansion
schemes and at least three official new towns schemes in the planning
system right now, it is very silly not to see what was good and
what was bad about the earlier experience.[3]
3. We agreed. Consequently, we asked the Government
to submit to us a memorandum following up not just on our predecessors'
recommendation regarding research, but on a number of other recommendations
which remained relevant. We received that memorandum, which is
published with this Report, in November last year.[4]
Following consideration of the Government's memorandum, the Committee
decided to seek a response to the work which the Government had
done from the New Towns Special Interest Group of local authorities
and from the Town and Country Planning Association. Their memoranda
in response are also published with this Report, together with
a separate memorandum from Bracknell Forest Council.[5]
4. The conclusion we have reached on the basis
of the evidence we have received from all these organisations
is that there remains a need for the Government to conduct further
research on the New Towns experience, particularly on their current
reinvestment needs. The research which has been carried out so
far, since our predecessors' Report, useful though it may be,
is inadequate to ensure that the issues facing the New Towns identified
in that Report are properly addressed. There are also valuable
lessons to be learnt from the New Towns programme in the context
of current planning and development policy, in particular the
"eco-towns" programme. Below
we consider our predecessors' original conclusions; assess the
Government's response so far; and set out the case for conducting
further research and evaluation of the needs of the New Towns.
1 Nineteenth Report of the Transport, Local Government
and the Regions Committee, Session 2001-02, The New Towns:
their Problems and Future, HC 603, paras 1 and 2. Back
2
Basildon, Bracknell, Central Lancashire, Corby, Crawley, Cwmbran,
Harlow, Hatfield, Hemel Hempstead, Milton Keynes, Newton Aycliffe,
Northampton, Peterborough, Peterlee, Redditch, Runcorn, Skelmersdale,
Stevenage, Telford, Warrington, Washington and Welwyn Garden City.
The liabilities and assets held by New Towns Corporations in Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland, with the exception of Cwmbran, were
passed on to the local authorities when the corporations closed,
but the liabilities and assets of these 22 were at the time of
our predecessors' Report held by English Partnerships. Back
3
Ev 1 Back
4
Ev 1-7 Back
5
Ev 7-11 Back
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