Housing Minister gives update on New Towns (specifically delivery)

The Housing (and planning) minister, Matthew Pennycook had an outing to the House of Lords Built Environment Committee last week. He clarified a few points that I am very pleased to share with you this week. 

Lord Gascoigne (Con), chair of the Built Environment committee, asked Mr Pennycook: “If the backlash [to new towns] is too much, will the government always say: ‘Look, this is in the national interest and we can appease to some extent, but we are going to crack on’?”

The minister responded with: “Yes, I think very plainly… If they [the taskforce] came to us and said: ‘We think there is X site that will add significantly to nationally economic growth and make a significant contribution to housing need over the coming years, we recommend you take it forward,’ I don't think local opposition that says we don't want it here can be the test… While we want as much local buy-in as possible, if there are appropriate sites that will meet those objectives, we will take them forward in the national interest."

The Government appears to be absolutely determined on the new towns despite missing their own deadlines on announcements. 

How will the new towns be delivered. 

We all know that Planning Departments across the county is struggling with staffing numbers and even if they do have the staff, some of the new towns will be considerably bigger than what the LPA is usually dealing with. This could seriously hamper the delivery if the whole planning department suddenly needs to concentrate all their efforts on the complexities of a new town. 

Sir Michael Lyons, the chair of the government's new towns taskforce, recently said that development corporations were the “optimal solution” for delivering the new towns.

Sir Michael said lessons from the past showed that such bodies, which are designated by central government with statutory powers, can “use wide-ranging planning powers to acquire land cost-effectively and deliver at pace and achieve public value”.

During the Built Environment Committee, Minister Pennycook confirmed the government was not “wedded” to any one type of development corporation, saying: “ What we have done is look at the existing legislation [and] the existing arrangements that are out there as an incoming Government, to ensure we are prepared to be able to support any type of intervention that is recommended… That is why, for example, there are provisions in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill designed to create a clearer, more flexible, more robust framework for the operation of development corporations, so they can meet these modern delivery challenges [and] so that we are geared up to be able to respond to the recommendations of the taskforce… That's why we have, for example, just recently introduced an amendment to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to set out the relationship between different types of development corporations aligning their boundaries.So we have thought through the various scenarios and what government would need to have done to ensure that we are not constrained and relying on primary legislation coming forward to be able to make a particular type of change.”

Minister Pennycook also said that if  the new towns taskforce recommend that development corporations be responsible for delivering a new settlement, there would be a “designated oversight authority” that would act as a “single point of accountability” for the development corporation.

He said: “Whether it's the secretary of state … the appropriate Mayor or whether it is a Local Authority, there will be that designated oversight authority for delivery…It will be for the relevant oversight authority to ensure each development corporation is appropriately transparent and accountable.”

The minister was also asked what factors the government will weigh up in deciding whether to take forward proposed new towns sites, he said the Government will factor in whether there’s enough money in last month’s Spending Review and "if other information were to arise subsequent to the report". 

He also said the Government would also liaise with the housing delivery agency Homes England “in terms of their assessment of the [proposed] sites [for new towns] so we can follow up and probe any questions that are raised”.

Most importantly, the Minister said that private investment would play "a significant role in the development of the new towns program", revealing the Government had "met with investors throughout the year" to "test their interest for investing in the program".

The Government is clearly determined to make the new towns work and they are into the detail of how they would be delivered. However, we still don’t quite know where these new towns will be and whether some of them will be allocated as part of existing settlements to dramatically enlarge them. 

We know that Milton Keynes is in the frame for this and certainly a new town designation for the land surrounding Milton Keynes would enable MK to deliver their Mass Rapid Transport system. They are very ably led by Cllr Peter Marland who is a visionary Leader who has great ambitions for his town. An integrated transport system that fully utilises the east-west rail from Cambridge to Oxford would unlock vast development and opportunity. 

There are also other potential locations for new towns where motorways, railways and airports converge that would be ideal places for new towns. These also tend to be more regional and in some cases already under regional Mayors to act as the oversight authority. 

The New Towns Commission needs to ensure that the growth is spread throughout the Country. These new Towns create a lot of opportunity and investment (jobs, homes, commerce, infrastructure etc.) and when they announce it, I hope that there is an even spread outside the south east in places like the east Midlands, West Midlands, North West, North East and Yorkshire. 

We are all eagerly anticipating the announcement of the first tranche of the new towns. But the Government need to get on with it… They only have for years left to det things going and I still very much doubt whether a single brick would have been laid in any of the new tows by the time Labour goes back to the people and ask for a second term.