What could the Planning and Infrastructure Bill mean for the new towns?
The Planning & Infrastructure Bill lays the foundations for new towns. Now it is up to Government to put them in the right places and ensure that they are the best they can be.
The Planning & Infrastructure Bill lays the foundations for new towns. Now it is up to Government to put them in the right places and ensure that they are the best they can be.
Centre for Cities recently set out its vision for the Government’s new town programme. New towns should be urban extensions, they should be public transport oriented, and they should be located where potential land value capture is greatest. If they are all these things, new towns will have the best chance of contributing to economic growth and improving housing affordability.
Happily, last week’s Planning & Infrastructure Bill lays the foundations for the fulfilment of each of these criteria. This blog explains how.
The Bill states that new town development corporations will be allowed to deliver urban extensions, and to develop both greenfield and brownfield sites simultaneously.
This is positive news – in most cases, large urban extensions are preferrable to establishing brand new settlements. Firstly, growing a city to expand an existing labour pool is a better bet for economic growth than creating brand new, smaller pools. High productivity firms are more likely to locate where they can find the specialised skills they need, and a larger labour pool makes it easier for successful companies to grow.
Secondly, urban extensions are also more likely to encourage public transport use, reducing carbon emissions. While a lot needs to be done to increase public transport use in UK cities, it is easier to improve ridership in denser locations near to existing networks. New towns as urban extensions could be the focal point for public transport improvements, and support a large amount of commuting by public transport, while brand new towns are more likely to embed car dependency.
This is another sensible change. Centre for Cities’ spatial analysis has found that many potential new town sites comprise non-contiguous sites located near to one or multiple train stations.
Allowing the same corporation to manage multiple sites will also enable costs and revenues to be shared between sites. This could enable a site with minimal infrastructure requirements to cross-subsidise another which faces higher site-specific costs. As Centre for Cities’ recent report shows, it could also enable the sale of high value housing in one location to fund social housing and other public benefits in lower value locations around the same city.
The Bill also includes a few measures to align the development of housing and public transport.
There will be an obligation for transport authorities to cooperate with development corporations, which should make it easier to coordinate transport improvements when new towns projects straddle multiple transport authority areas. If this obligation doesn’t prove enough, the Secretary of State will also be given the ability to transfer specific transport powers to the development corporation itself (except Mayoral development corporations).
Development corporations also will now be allowed to build railways and tramways themselves rather than relying on external agencies.
To secure the maximum land value capture on new town developments, land needs to be assembled at close to existing use values, and the locations chosen need to be in higher value locations.
When it comes to developing new towns, last week’s Bill won’t change the price land can be bought for in most situations. The ‘no scheme’ principle and Section 190 of the 2023 Levelling Up and Regeneration Act mean that there are already laws in place to enable large-scale land assembly at close to existing use value.
What the new legislation does do is try to make the process as straightforward as possible. Assuming the Bill passes unchanged, when landowners don’t want to challenge the CPO, then things will be able to move more quickly. And if land is being purchased ‘in the public interest’, under Section 190, an appointed inspector, rather than the Secretary of State themselves can give the go ahead. These, and a few other tweaks, should be the final touches to a system that is otherwise ready to be used.
But, as Figure 1 shows, the most important factor when it comes to making the most of public land assembly, is the locations that are chosen.
CPOs can help secure land for development anywhere, but the largest land value uplift can be secured on sites in the Greater South East.
Making the most of the new towns programme will mean most – not just some – of the projects being extensions to major cities. And it will mean most – not some – of the projects being located in the Greater South East.
Assuming the Bill passes unchanged, the Government will have its ducks in a row and should do everything they can to make the most of them.
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