Government response to the Communities
and Local Government Select Committee's report on New Towns (the
Ninth Report of Session 2007-08)
INTRODUCTION
1. This memorandum sets out the Government's
response to the Committee's follow up report on New Towns. The
Committee concluded that:
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.
Second, we need to learn lessons for the future.
The Government has embarked on a massive regeneration programme,
aiming to deliver three 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.
THE GOVERNMENT'S
RESPONSE
2. The Government welcomes the Committee's
decision to follow up-on its predecessor Committee's work on New
Towns.
3. As the Government made clear in its response[1]
to the predecessor Committee's report, it believes that by and
large the New Towns have been successful. They have played an
important role in creating better homes and environments, particularly
open space, for over two million people and still have much to
offer those communities. It believes they are still held in high
affection by those communities that live in them.
4. However, the Government acknowledges
that the New Towns, like all other towns and cities, have continuing
investment needs to ensure that they remain attractive places
in which to live and work. The Government also recognises the
particular circumstances of the New Towns; for example the concentration
of housing and infrastructure of a single period, and the consequent
issues around managing and funding maintenance and improvements
which may occur in a concentrated period, rather than over a longer
timeframe as might be expected in other towns and cities. In addition,
for some New Towns issues around the design and physical layout
which, while desirable and reflecting best practice at the time,
have proved inflexible and have not stood the test of time, and
have helped create some of the issues that New Towns now have
to deal with. Although these issues are not, of course, exclusive
to New Towns.
5. The Government noted in its response
to the predecessor Committee's report, Government's desire for
New Towns to be "normalised" and to ensure parity of
treatment with other local authorities in national programmes
on housing, regeneration and funding. This, however, is not to
downplay the issues and challenges that they face. The Government
also noted that the New Towns were capable of sustaining future
growth.
GROWTH AGENDA
6. Since the Government's response to the
previous Committee in 2002, 13 of the 19 New Towns,
and nine of the 10 Expanded Towns under the 1952 Town
Development Act (list at Annex A), are now included in the Government's
Growth Areas and Growth Points programmes, and are working in
partnership with Government to deliver sustainable housing growth.
These New Towns have embraced the growth agenda in support of
their place-shaping role, setting out the vision for how they
want their towns to grow, and how growth and expansion are at
the heart of their long term plans and ambitions for regeneration
and renewal.
7. Government is supporting the growth and
regeneration plans of these New Towns, through encouraging the
production of Programmes of Development, as the basis for accessing
funding support. Programmes of Development act as infrastructure
and business plans; they set out how New Towns plan to deliver
sustainable growth, the vision and ambition for the area, and
the standards they seek to achieve. They include the infrastructure
required to support the New Town over the short, medium and long-term,
and their partners in delivering, and funding this infrastructure.
8. Through their Programmes of Development
the New Towns in the growth programme have set out a holistic
approach to growth, looking not just at what physical infrastructure
is necessary, but also what social, community and green infrastructure
is required to support their growing towns, to benefit existing
and future residents. They have assessed the impacts of growth
on transport and how they are working to support the need for
higher transport journeys, but also looking at how they can achieve
a modal shift to more sustainable methods of transport. They have
taken account of the environmental impact of their growth plans,
and how they seek to address the problems of climate change through
higher environmental and sustainability standards. They also look
at how the New Towns will ensure excellent standards of design
in the new developments they are planning.
9. To support the local authorities' role
as place shaper, Government has removed the ringfencing and conditions
around the Growth Funding that it provides, giving the New Towns
and their growth partners control over how the funding is managed,
what it is spent on, and when. Local authorities now have the
freedom and flexibility to respond to changing circumstances and
adapt their funding priorities to best meet local needs.
10. The Government is investing £832 million
to support the provision of necessary infrastructure to support
growth in the Growth Areas and Growth Points over the period 2008-11.
Funding awards for individual locations for the period 2009-10 and
2010-11 were announced on 10 December 2008.[2]
11. The Government awarded £400 million
to Growth Areas from 2003-08, and awarded £200 million
to support transport schemes in the Growth Areas through the Community
Infrastructure Fund from 2006-08. The Government is currently
assessing bids for a further £200 million from the second
round of the Community Infrastructure Fund, with funding announcements
expected in the New Year.
12. This is on top of the mainstream Government
expenditure programmes that support places, including £2.2 billion
from the Department for Transport for transport schemes that support
the growth agenda.
13. The Government is also providing additional
capacity and support to these New Towns to deliver the growth
agenda with funding to support Local Delivery Vehicles in five
of the New Towns (and two Expanded Towns). These Local Delivery
Vehicles (list at Annex B) have been established with local authority
and local partner support, with the local authorities as key members
of their Boards. Through use of Growth Fund awards, other Growth
Areas and Growth Points are providing additional delivery capacity,
where necessary. The type of delivery support ranges from a statutory
Urban Development Corporation, Urban Regeneration Companies and
local authority partnerships.
14. The new Homes and Communities Agency
will be working with local authorities in the New Towns and across
the country to support them in the delivery of their growth ambitions,
and in the creation of a single investment plan to successfully
bring forward local goals in a more integrated way.
15. Examples of how growth has helped support
the regeneration and renewal of New Towns are at Annex C.
LEARNING AND
ECO-TOWNS
16. The New Towns have helped shape planning
policies over the last 60 years, and much of what they pioneered
has already been incorporated into mainstream thinking. Following
the predecessor Committee's report, the Government commissioned
a literature review by Oxford Brookes University,[3]
and research funded by English Partnerships and by the Institute
of Public Policy Research.[4]
17. The Government has also been working
closely with the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA)
since 2006 looking at new settlements. In 2007 the TCPA
produced a CLG commissioned guide, Best Practice in Urban Extensions
and New Settlements, which looked at planned town making and
developments since the 1950's and their achievements. This work
has contributed to the development of the Eco-towns programme,
a modern concept of the New Towns to meet today's challenges of
reducing climate change and increasing the supply of affordable
housing and creating a modern legacy of exemplar developments
for others to learn from, through the development of new technologies
and practices. The Eco-towns will build on the lessons learned
from the New Towns and other developments since, both here and
overseas.
18. The Government has been working closely
with the TCPA on the development of the Eco-towns programme. It
has commissioned the TCPA to draw on their considerable experience
and expertise and, as leading proponents of the New Town movement,
to develop a series of worksheets on the delivery of important
principles such as community engagement, water management and
transport, which Government wants to see underpin each application
for an Eco-town scheme.
19. These worksheets include specific best
practice drawn on case studies from New Towns and other European
examples and provide innovative solutions. The worksheets will
help promoters and developers identify the Eco-town standards
that such developments must meet.
Eco-towns Worksheet Case Study—Milton Keynes
The Community Worksheet looks at the example
of Milton Keynes to illustrate the funding of community developments
through contributions from the Milton Keynes Tariff, which will
distribute funding for existing and new voluntary community activities
and groups and also support area-based workers to work on community
development. This will allow existing voluntary organisations
and their staff to deliver a programme to welcome newcomers, develop
community events, and provide information on the support and facilities
already available in Milton Keynes.
FURTHER RESEARCH
20. The literature review undertaken to
date is a strong starting point. The Government will commission
further work to evaluate the successes and benefits that Britain's
biggest planning experiment brought. It will be important to ensure
that the wider lessons are evaluated in moving forward with the
Eco-towns, Growth Areas and Growth Points programmes which form
the basis for the Government's housing growth programme.
21. Whilst the infrastructure and assets
of the New Towns are showing signs of ageing, the focus of research
will be targeted towards social and retail infrastructure. By
focussing on these two areas, and in commissioning further research,
lessons and examples can be distilled for current growth programmes,
including the Eco-towns and Growth Points programmes.
22. Local neighbourhood centres are critical
to the success and vitality of neighbourhoods and provide a wider
service centre other than simply providing a retail function.
However, with increased reliance on the car to access local neighbourhood
units, the function they perform can be usurped by the supermarket.
The Government will therefore instigate research into retail patterns
when the New Towns were planned and designed, and look at what
innovative methods/models have been used to regenerate the retail
function. This might look at the following key components:
— Empirical data gathering on how New Towns
have undergone significant renewal/regeneration since development
in the 1950's and 1960's.
— Evaluation of the neighbourhood shopping
unit model and of related social facilities and how such units
assisted in providing a sense of community—what are the
challenges they face today?
— Scope the sphere of influence of regional
shopping centres which have impacted on the primary retail function
of new towns (particularly in Essex and Hertfordshire).
— Identify what a retail model (dispersed
or concentrated) might look like in a new community today.
23. The importance of social infrastructure
in knitting together new communities cannot be underestimated.
In order to engender a sense of community and place, early new
communities were provided with community workers, as well as facilities
which enabled people to meet and socialise collectively.
24. In order to provide a robust set of
information and research in taking forward the Government's current
growth programmes the following review should be undertaken:
— Desk based research into what social
infrastructure was provided in each New Town.
— Evaluate the critical factors which make
up necessary community infrastructure in a modern setting and
identify what lessons/methods can be applied to the Eco-towns
programme.
— Identify what changes in social/community
infrastructure have occurred in the New Towns over the last 50 years
and establish how successful these changes have been in terms
of providing a social focus for communities.
— Identify what can be done to reinvent
failed or life-expired facilities which are needed to support
and underpin the wider community.
25. The Homes and Communities Agency, with
their expertise and specialist knowledge on housing and regeneration,
will be critical in assisting and further developing this work.
The timetable for taking forward this proposed work will be considered
as part of the normal departmental business planning process.
26. There is now a wealth of guidance, good
practice and legislation that has been issued since the establishment
of the New Towns which is being used to inform decisions about
how we build the new settlements of the future. This information
is defining high-quality of places being built and more importantly
impacting and improving on quality of life.
27. It has always been the Government's
view that the New Towns be mainstreamed to ensure parity of treatment
with other local authorities in national programmes on housing,
regeneration and social inclusion. All towns have problems specific
to their particular area, location, heritage, etc and New Towns
are not unique in this. The needs of each local area need to be
considered in each case and each will have particular regeneration
requirements. There is no universal solution. Each location is
unique, and what works in one place may not work in another. It
is important that the many professional disciplines work closely
together and pay close attention to the needs of the local area.
Communities and Local Government
January 2009
Annex A
ENGLISH NEW TOWNS COVERED BY GROWTH AREAS
OR GROWTH POINTS
|
| First Generation New Towns |
|
| Hemel Hempstead | Growth Area
|
| Hatfield | Growth Area |
| Harlow | Growth Area |
| Stevenage | Growth Area |
| Crawley | |
| Basildon | Thames Gateway Growth Area
|
| Bracknell | |
| Newton Aycliffe | Growth Point
|
| Corby | Growth Area |
|
| Second Generation |
|
| Redditch | |
| Runcorn | Growth Point |
| Skelmersdale | |
| Washington | |
|
| Third Generation | |
| Milton Keynes | Growth Area
|
| Warrington | Growth Point |
| Telford | Growth Point |
| Peterborough | Growth Area |
| Northampton | Growth Area |
| Central Lancashire (Preston - Leyland) |
Growth Point |
|
| Expanded Towns (1952 Town Development Act)
| |
| Ashford | Growth Area |
| Aylesbury | Growth Area |
| Bletchley | Growth Area |
| Swindon | Growth Point |
| Basingstoke | Growth Point |
| Thetford | Growth Point |
| Farnborough, Frimley & Camberley |
|
| Haverhill | Growth Area |
| Bury St. Edmunds | Growth Area
|
| Huntingdon | Growth Area |
| |
Annex B
LOCAL DELIVERY VEHICLES IN THE NEW TOWNS
New Town | LDV
| Model |
Harlow | Harlow Renaissance
| LA Partnership (Ltd Company) |
| Corby | North Northants Development Company
| Urban Regeneration Company |
| Milton Keynes | Milton Keynes Partnership
| Urban Development Area |
| Peterborough | Opportunity Peterborough
| Urban Regeneration Company |
| Northampton | West Northampton Development Corporation
| Urban Development Corporation |
| Expanded Town | LDV
| Model |
| Ashford | Ashford's Future |
LA Partnership (Ltd Company) |
| Aylesbury | Aylesbury Vale Advantage
| LA Partnership (Ltd Company) |
| |
|
Annex C
CORBY
A new £40 million 16,258 square metre shopping
centre has revitalised Corby town centre improving the retail
environment and providing food and entertainment uses. A further
£100 million second phase is planned.
The £32 million Corby Cube, currently under construction,
will provide a new 450 seat theatre and library as well as
a one-stop shop for council services. The Corby Cube will be an
iconic design that will help restore the heart to the town centre.
A new £18 million 50 metre international sized
swimming pool is also being constructed next to the Corby Cube,
which will also provide a gym, dance studio, caf
and cr€che facilities and a health suite.
The 40,000 square feet Corby Enterprise Centre will
provide entrepreneurs and expanding businesses with good quality
office and workshop space as well as dedicated business assistance
ad facilities such as meeting rooms.
The re-establishment of rail services to Corby has been confirmed
and a new railway station has been constructed. Services are due
to begin in the New Year and it is estimated that it will help
unlock £200 million of commercial investment in the
area.
A recent survey by Oxford Economics found that Corby was
the town least vulnerable to the economic downturn.
MILTON KEYNES
Central Milton Keynes has been re-invigorated through better
land use and building to higher densities. A new continental style
business district has been created with two quality hotels, a
World Trade Centre, restaurants and apartments set around a public
square with a water feature and public art. The Pinnacle is a
landmark 18,500 square metre office development scheme with
retail units which has achieved BREEAM excellent rating.
Public transport improvements such as bus lanes, priority
measures and the provision of real-time passenger information
at bus stops providing a quality bus network across Milton Keynes.
The West End CMK development will provide 650 homes
in addition to a new school with all weather sports pitch, community
facilities, commercial and small business space and two new public
squares.
HARLOW
Harlow is embarking on the regeneration of the northern end
of its town centre which will re-integrate the market square to
the rest of the town, making it easier to move in and around the
town. The 1.2 million square feet redevelopment will include
new retail led mixed use development incorporating retail, leisure,
commercial and residential units, along with improved public space
and leisure activity transforming Harlow into a sub-regional shopping
centre.
Harlow is also regenerating local neighbourhood centres at
Prentice Place, Staple Tye and Clifton Hatch through the provision
of additional housing, better health services, improved shopping
and community facilities, including open space.
The new Harlow Enterprise Hub provides modern, supportive
working environment for individuals and small businesses starting
up, with up to 55 units available. The Enterprise Hub also
offers business advice and support services as well as meeting
rooms and video conferencing facilities.
TELFORD
A regeneration strategy for reshaping the Woodside estate
focuses on housing areas which are to be redesigned to mitigate
the effect of the Radburn layout of the estate. Limited demolition
and new housing on infill sites will support this re-design work.
In addition, there is potential for an estimated 1,500 homes
in the area, building on the existing regeneration strategy for
Woodside.
Telford is taking forward improvements to green infrastructure
and its town centre. Future plans include remodelling strategic
highway junctions, and providing new leisure facilities for the
town including a new library and medical centre.
Telford won awards in 2007 for the Telford Millennium
Community and the major housing scheme at Lawley was one of the
first Design Codes pilots and was developed through the enquiry
by design process.
1
Government's Response to the Transport, Local Government and the
Regions Committee Report: "The New Towns: Their Problems
and Future", Cm 5685 Back
2
http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1094244 Back
3
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/transferablelessons2 Back
4
Jim Bennett, From New Towns to Growth Areas: Learning from the
Past, 2005, IPPR Back
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