3 The Government's response
10. The Government's belated response at the
time to the Committee's recommendation of an evaluation was half-hearted.
It argued that the policy context had moved on and that "much
of the good practice in development which [the New Towns pioneered
had] already been incorporated into mainstream thinking,"[14]
thus effectively setting aside the Committee's analysis of the
problems which New Towns continued to experience. The response
to the Committee's proposal for an audit of the liabilities inherited
by the New Towns, including of their reinvestment needs, was equally
dismissive:
It would not be practical to carry out an audit of
liabilities inherited by the local authorities at this late stage.
The present needs of the New Town local authorities, as with all
local authorities, are assessed through the Standard Spending
Assessment (SSA).[15]
11. The Government did, however, concede that
a "review of existing material could be undertaken as part
of a feasibility study, with a view to undertaking a more thematic
evaluation".[16]
The precise nature of that review was kept vague, but the Government
suggested that "issues to consider within a thematic study
might include community, economic, land use planning and physical
design issues", adding "If the New Towns are different
from other towns in their region, the work should explore why
and the extent to which existing policy tools are appropriate,
reinvestment and transferable lessons."[17]
12. In our request of last year for a memorandum
from CLG, we asked three specific questions:
a) What further research has been undertaken
as part of the feasibility study suggested in the Government response?
b) What progress has been made towards commissioning
the thematic evaluation mentioned in the Government response?
c) How have the results of such research informed
current policy development on issues such as affordable housing
(including the recent Housing Green Paper), growth areas, eco-towns,
further New Town schemes and urban and regional strategies in
general; and how will such research feed into the implementation
of the recent Planning White Paper?
13. The Government's memorandum noted that two
studies had been completed since its original response to our
predecessors' report in February 2003. The first was the literature
review by Oxford Brookes University referred to in Professor Lock's
letter to our Chair. Entitled 'Transferable Lessons from the New
Towns', it was published in 2006.[18]
The second was research funded by English Partnerships and undertaken
by the Institute for Public Policy Research entitled 'From New
Towns to Growth Areas: Learning from the Past', which was published
in May 2005.[19]
14. There was, however, still no sign of the
"more thematic evaluation" which the Committee recommended
and the Government implied. The Government's response to the Committee's
question on this point referred to work done by the Town and Country
Planning Association to support new settlements and eco-towns.[20]
Whilst no doubt useful, this work appeared to us to have little
to do with evaluating the New Towns programme. Furthermore, the
Government's memorandum made no reference to the Committee's recommendation
that any further research should evaluate the reinvestment needs
of the New Towns.
15. The remainder of the Government's memorandum
was nevertheless, on the face of it, quite encouraging. As well
as listing some lessons which had been drawn from research, it
detailed a range of work which has been done on New Towns, including:
- the use of strategic and non-strategic
sites held by English Partnerships as a legacy from the Commission
for New Towns;
- urban renewal and infrastructure development;
- improving relationships between English Partnerships
and local authorities (of which our predecessors were critical)
; and
- transport improvements.
The memorandum also comments briefly on the planning
powers held by English Partnerships inherited from the Commission
for New Towns and the effect of the creation of the planned Homes
and Communities Agency .[21]
14 Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Government's
Response to the Transport, Local Government and the Regions Committee
Report: 'The New Towns: Their Problems and Future', Cm 5685,
November 2002, para 58. Back
15
ibid, para 50. Back
16
ibid, para 58. Back
17
ibid, para 59. Back
18
Department for Communities and Local Government, Department of
Planning Oxford Brookes University, Transferable Lessons from
the New Towns (London, 2006). Back
19
Jim Bennett, From New Towns to Growth Areas: Learning
from the Past (London, 2005), ippr. Back
20
Ev 1-2 Back
21
Ev 2-7 Back
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