MADE Partnership: Labour’s New Town Policy is Underway
With news of a partnership between Homes England, Barratt and Lloyd’s Banking Group (MADE Partnership), alongside the previously announced appointment of Taskforce leads, Labour’s ambitious new towns policy is clearly underway.
The Government plans to build 1.5 million homes across a network of new settlements over the next five years, some of which will be large-scale new communities built on greenfield land, separate from other nearby settlements, and others will form urban extensions on existing towns.
From an economic development perspective, these proposals raise questions around:
- The need for overarching visions which consider all aspects of development beyond housing, for new towns separated from other nearby settlements, but also for urban extensions straddling authority boundaries.
- The delivery mechanism for ensuring socio-economic needs are being met throughout the project development phase
On both fronts, to what extent will developers have buy-in to plans and delivery mechanisms? David Thomas, chief executive of Barratt, said that “we are creating a master developer which can manage the infrastructure and placemaking that is needed to deliver at scale”. Together with the Made Partnership between Homes England and developers, these are positive signs of developer buy-in to socio-economic and community needs at the early master planning stage.
There are lessons to be learnt from past new town developments, as often detailed economic thinking has come too late and details of housing delivery progress faster than socio-economic needs, leaving developers struggling to play catch up.
