5 Conclusion: addressing present needs
and learning lessons
21. The response from the TCPA and the New Towns
SIG is clear: there is an ongoing need for research into the New
Towns. This need is twofold:
- research into the detailed
reinvestment needs of the new towns; and
- research which can inform current and future
policy development.
22. In our view, it is the former which is most
pressing. The memorandum from the New Towns SIG makes clear that
the particular reinvestment needs of the New Towns remain as great
as when our predecessor Committee conducted its inquiry. In its
original response to the report, the Government, as we have already
noted, effectively set aside the evidence presented by the Committee
about the particular situation faced by the New Towns:
The Government accepts that some of the New Towns
have problems relating to their non-traditional housing design
and infrastructure. There are, however, many other urban areas
that are not New Towns but were built at the same time and to
the same specifications. This is not a problem specific to the
New Towns.[29]
Yet, as the Committee's report shows, and as the
memorandum from the New Towns SIG points out, there is a
problem specific to the New Towns. As each New Town was built
at around the same time, so the majority of the infrastructure
of each town is reaching the end of its design life at the same
time. Whereas other urban areas may have pockets of infrastructure
now needing renewal, New Towns face the prospect of all their
infrastructure requiring refurbishment at once.
23. The urgency of the need for an assessment
of regeneration requirements should not, however, overshadow the
need for an analysis which can deliver clear lessons for the "eco-towns"
programme, for the Growth Areas, and for future development to
meet the increasing housing needs in England. It is notable that
both the studies already commissioned by the Government comment
critically on the lack of research evaluating the New Towns programme
as a whole.[30] The
TCPA has set out a number of areas where the desk-based research
which has already been done could usefully be supplemented by
further work to ensure that the good practice of the New Towns
programme is perpetuated and the mistakes not repeated.
24. Our predecessors summed up this twin requirement
in their final conclusions:
Successive urban regeneration programmes have overlooked
the needs of the new towns. By 1992, the new towns had been de-designated
by central Government and were no longer recognised as a separate
and identifiable policy area. This de-designation occurred prior
to any audit of the regeneration needs of the towns being implemented.
[…] Decisions about the assets of the New Towns are being
made in a strategic void… They have significant regeneration
and reinvestment needs which are not being addressed by central
Government. Without a significant policy change, the legacy of
this altruistic 20th century planning initiative may
be transformed from a series of projects that have generated some
social and economic benefits into expensive net liabilities. This
failure of public policy to adapt to change may well create a
text book example of how not to manage public assets.[31]
25. Like our predecessor Transport,
Local Government and the Regions Committee, the Town and Country
Planning Association and the New Towns Special Interest Group,
we are critical of the Government for continuing to neglect the
particular regeneration requirements of the New Towns. There remain
two urgent and pressing needs. First, we must identify the steps
which are needed to maintain the post-war New Towns as successful
communities and good places to live. They were social experiments.
By their nature they have special and particular needs. If those
needs are not recognised, there is a danger that they will fall
into social decay and physical dereliction. The Government cannot
pretend that they are just like any other urban area of England.
They are not. We recommend that the Government commission a detailed
examination of the reinvestment needs of the New Towns. This is
an essential first step towards ensuring that the significant
investment in the New Towns programme, and the social and economic
benefits which have been gained from it, are not wasted.
26. Second, we need to learn
lessons for the future. The Government has embarked on a massive
regeneration programme, aiming to deliver 3 million new homes
by 2020. It would be an act of folly not to spend a small sum
on trying to learn the lessons of history in order to prevent
past mistakes being repeated. Building on the desk-based research
which has already been done, we recommend that further original
work be undertaken identifying specific lessons for the long-term
planning of current and future large-scale urban development such
as the "eco-town" programme and the Growth Areas.
29 Cm 5685, para 45. Back
30
DCLG/Oxford Brookes University (2006), p 5; Bennett (2005), p
18. Back
31
HC (2001-02) 603, para 95. Back
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