A New Generation of New Towns: What It Means for Local Government

The United Kingdom stands at a pivotal moment in its planning and housing history. With housing affordability deteriorating, infrastructure under increasing strain, and economic growth faltering in many regions, the government has turned to a bold and ambitious solution not seen since the post-war era: the creation of a new wave of New Towns.

The New Towns Taskforce Final Report, published in September 2025, sets out a comprehensive and visionary blueprint for how large-scale, master planned communities can not only address the chronic shortage of homes, but also act as engines of regional growth, social renewal, and environmental sustainability. It is a call to action not just for central government, but for local authorities, developers, infrastructure providers, and communities themselves.

This is not a return to the past, but a reimagining of what new towns can be in the 21st century. These are places designed to be inclusive, connected, climate-resilient, and economically vibrant. They are intended to be built at scale with most delivering 10,000 to 40,000 homes and to be underpinned by placemaking principles that prioritise affordable housing, public transport, green infrastructure, and long-term stewardship.

For local government, the implications are profound. Councils will be central to the success of this programme whether through strategic planning, infrastructure coordination, community engagement, or delivery partnerships. The report makes clear that without strong local leadership, cross-boundary collaboration, and a renewed focus on long-term place quality, the vision for new towns will remain just that a vision. This blog explores what the Taskforce’s recommendations mean for local government, and why now is the time to embrace a new era of town-building one that puts people, place, and purpose at its heart.

The Scale of the Challenge

“The housing crisis is not only limiting where people can live – it is limiting what this country can achieve economically.” New Towns Taskforce Final Report

The housing crisis in England is no longer just a social issue it is a structural barrier to national prosperity. The Taskforce’s report lays bare the scale of the challenge facing local authorities, communities, and policymakers alike.

• Over 1.3 million households remain on social housing waiting lists, with many waiting years for a secure, affordable home.

• At least 326,000 people, the majority of them families with children, are living in temporary accommodation often in unsuitable, overcrowded, or insecure conditions.

• The average home in England now costs eight times the average salary, placing home ownership out of reach for millions, particularly younger people and key workers.

• Local authorities spent a staggering £3 billion last year tackling homelessness a figure that continues to rise and places immense pressure on already stretched council budgets.

These statistics are not just numbers they represent lives disrupted, opportunities missed, and communities under strain. The report highlights how housing shortages are directly stifling labour mobility, making it harder for people to live near where jobs are being created. This, in turn, is contributing to staffing shortages in public services, longer commutes, and fragmented communities. In cities like Manchester, Leeds, and Oxford, economic potential is being throttled by a lack of affordable housing and ageing infrastructure. These are places with thriving industries, world-class universities, and growing populations yet they are struggling to retain talent and support inclusive growth.

The consequences ripple outward: housing insecurity is linked to poorer mental and physical health, delayed family formation, lower educational attainment, and rising inequality. For local government, this means rising demand for services, increasing financial risk, and a growing need for bold, coordinated action. The Taskforce makes it clear: without a step-change in how we plan, fund, and deliver housing, the UK will continue to fall short of its economic and social ambitions. The new towns programme is positioned as a strategic intervention one that could help reverse decades of underinvestment and unlock a more equitable future.

The New Towns Vision

The New Towns Taskforce has laid out a bold and transformative plan: the creation of twelve new towns across England, each designed to deliver at least 10,000 homes, with some sites capable of accommodating up to 40,000. These are not just housing estates they are ambitious, master planned communities intended to reshape the way we think about growth, infrastructure, and place-making. The recommended locations span a diverse range of geographies and economic contexts, including:

• Adlington, Cheshire East – a standalone settlement strategically positioned to support the expanding industries of Greater Manchester and Cheshire.

• Thamesmead Waterfront, Greenwich – unlocking underutilised riverside land in London to create a vibrant, well-connected new community.

• Victoria North, Manchester – regenerating 155 hectares of brownfield land to deliver thousands of homes and revitalise one of the city’s most deprived areas.

• South Bank, Leeds – establishing a new urban quarter adjacent to the city centre, with capacity for 13,000 homes and significant commercial space.

• Marlcombe, East Devon – supporting the Exeter and East Devon Enterprise Zone, with a new town designed to strengthen the region’s labour supply and economic resilience.

Each of these new towns will be underpinned by a set of ten placemaking principles, which the Taskforce recommends should form the foundation of every masterplan and delivery agreement. These principles are not just aspirational they are intended to be embedded contractually and monitored throughout the development lifecycle. Key features include:

• A minimum of 40% affordable housing, with at least half of that allocated for social rent a gold standard that aims to address the acute shortage of genuinely affordable homes.

• Early delivery of essential social infrastructure, including schools, healthcare facilities, cultural spaces, and green public realm ensuring communities are supported from day one.

• Integrated transport strategies, with a strong emphasis on mass transit, active travel, and reduced car dependency aligning with the government’s net-zero ambitions and public health goals.

• Long-term stewardship models, such as community trusts or development corporations, to maintain communal assets and ensure places remain well cared for over time.

• Genuine community engagement, empowering residents to shape the vision, identity, and governance of their town fostering pride, ownership, and social cohesion.

This is a vision for new towns that goes far beyond bricks and mortar. It is about creating thriving, inclusive, and resilient places, places where people can live well, work locally, access services easily, and feel part of a connected and sustainable community. For local government, this represents both a challenge and an opportunity. Councils will need to be active partners in shaping these places, ensuring that local needs are met, infrastructure is delivered, and communities are supported. But they also stand to benefit through increased housing supply, economic growth, and a renewed sense of civic ambition.

What This Means for Local Government

The New Towns Taskforce Final Report is not just a blueprint for national growth it is a call to arms for local government. Councils will be central to the success of this programme, and the implications span planning, infrastructure, finance, skills, and governance. Here’s what it means in practice:

1. Strategic Planning and Collaboration

The scale and ambition of the new towns programme demands a level of strategic coordination rarely seen in recent decades. Many of the proposed sites span multiple local authority boundaries, requiring councils to work together in ways that transcend traditional silos.

The report calls for the development of Regional Spatial Strategies, the establishment of Development Corporations, and the use of interim planning protections to safeguard land from speculative development. Councils will need to engage early in shaping masterplans, aligning local plans, and ensuring that new towns complement rather than compete with existing growth strategies.

This means local authorities must be ready to collaborate not only with neighbouring councils, but also with Homes England, central government departments, and private sector partners. The success of each new town will depend on the strength of these partnerships and the clarity of shared vision.

2. Infrastructure Coordination

Infrastructure is the backbone of any successful new town. The report is unequivocal: transport, utilities, and social infrastructure must be planned and funded upfront, not retrofitted years later.

Key priorities include:

• Upgrades to water and power networks, particularly in areas where infrastructure has not kept pace with population growth.

• Delivery of Mass Rapid Transit systems, such as those proposed in Milton Keynes and Plymouth, to reduce car dependency and support sustainable travel.

• Investment in digital infrastructure, ensuring new towns are future-proofed with high-speed connectivity, smart technologies, and resilient energy systems.

Local authorities will need to play a proactive role in coordinating infrastructure delivery, working with providers, regulators, and developers to ensure that new towns are not only viable but vibrant. This includes negotiating Section 106 agreements, securing Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) contributions, and influencing regional transport strategies.

3. Funding and Land Value Capture

New towns will require significant upfront investment, but they also offer the potential for long-term financial returns both for government and for councils.

The report outlines a multi-layered funding model, including:

• £16 billion for the National Housing Bank to unlock large sites and attract private investment.

• £5 billion in capital grants via the National Housing Delivery Fund.

• Use of long-term loans, joint ventures, and tax financing instruments to support delivery and capture land value uplift.

Councils will need to understand and engage with these mechanisms, particularly where they are landowners or infrastructure providers. Development Corporations may lead delivery, but local authorities will be key stakeholders shaping funding agreements, ensuring value for money, and advocating for reinvestment in local services. This is also an opportunity to rethink how land value is captured and redistributed. By securing land early and aligning planning powers with infrastructure investment, councils can help ensure that the benefits of growth are shared with communities.

4. Skills and Capacity Building

Delivering new towns at scale will require a step-change in local government capacity. Councils will need to strengthen their teams in:

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• Strategic master planning shaping long-term visions and coordinating across departments.

• Infrastructure delivery managing complex projects and engaging with utilities, transport bodies, and developers.

• Community engagement building trust, securing buy-in, and empowering residents to shape their towns.

• Stewardship and governance ensuring that new towns are well-managed, inclusive, and financially sustainable over time.

The report recommends the development of robust skills strategies, aligned with regional training providers and supported by national investment. It also calls for innovation in Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), which will require councils to understand new technologies, procurement models, and delivery partnerships. This is a chance for local government to lead not just in delivery, but in shaping the future of housing, infrastructure, and place-making in England.

Funding Challenges and Solutions for New Towns

Delivering a new generation of new towns is a bold and ambitious undertaking, but it comes with significant financial complexity. The New Towns Taskforce is clear: without upfront funding, long-term financial certainty, and innovative investment models, the vision for new towns will not be realised.

The Funding Challenges

First, new towns require substantial early investment in land acquisition, infrastructure such as transport, utilities and digital connectivity, and social amenities including schools, healthcare and green spaces. These costs are often beyond the reach of local authorities or private developers acting alone.

Second, many sites are constrained by inadequate infrastructure. Without early investment, development stalls or proceeds in a piecemeal fashion, undermining the ambition to create well-planned communities.

Third, the Taskforce recommends a gold standard of forty percent affordable housing, with half of that for social rent. In many areas, this is not viable without government grant funding, especially where land values are lower or infrastructure costs are high.

Fourth, delivering at scale requires assembling large, contiguous parcels of land. This is difficult and expensive, particularly where ownership is fragmented and speculative value expectations are high.

Fifth, councils often lack the financial levers to capture land value uplift or fund infrastructure over time. Unlike London, most authorities cannot levy business rate supplements or transport levies.

Finally, institutional investors are interested in supporting new towns, but they require clear governance, robust masterplans and long-term funding certainty before committing capital.

The Proposed Solutions

To address these challenges, the Taskforce sets out a comprehensive funding strategy.

Government has committed sixteen billion pounds to the National Housing Bank to unlock large sites and attract private investment. A further five billion pounds has been allocated to the National Housing Delivery Fund in capital grants. Thirty-nine billion pounds has also been committed to the Social and Affordable Homes Programme. Development corporations are the preferred delivery model. These bodies can acquire land early to capture value uplift, coordinate infrastructure and housing delivery, act as local planning authorities to streamline approvals, and provide a single point of accountability and stewardship.

Publicly issued long-term loans at government rates can empower development corporations to manage budgets outside the annual spending review cycle. This gives them the certainty to invest and enter partnerships with the private sector. Joint ventures with landowners and developers are encouraged. These risk-sharing models align public objectives with private investment and can include deferred land payments and agreements to share future value. The Taskforce also recommends exploring tax financing instruments. These could include levies on business rates or land value uplift, enabling infrastructure to be funded over time rather than requiring large upfront grants.

Land value capture mechanisms such as Section 106 agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy remain important tools. Selling serviced land parcels at increased value after planning and infrastructure investment is another way to recover costs. Institutional investors, including pension funds and asset managers, have expressed strong interest in supporting new towns. Build-to-rent models and other forms of patient capital are particularly well-suited to long-term development programmes.

What Local Government Can Do

Local authorities can play a vital role by advocating for early designation and government support for sites in their area. They should engage with Homes England and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to shape delivery models, prepare to partner with development corporations, and ensure local plans and infrastructure strategies align with new town ambitions.

Councils should also build internal capacity in land assembly, funding negotiations and strategic planning to ensure they are ready to lead or support delivery.

Final Thoughts

The New Towns programme is not simply about building houses. It is about shaping the future of how and where people live, work and thrive. It is a strategic intervention designed to unlock economic growth, address deep-rooted housing shortages, and create communities that are inclusive, resilient and built to last.

“New towns are not simply a mechanism for delivering more homes. They are an opportunity to shape the future of how and where we live and work.” New Towns Taskforce Final Report

The scale of the challenge is clear. As of 2024, the median house price in England is nearly eight times the average salary. Over 1.3 million households remain on social housing waiting lists, and more than 326,000 people many of them families are living in temporary accommodation. Local authorities spent £3 billion last year tackling homelessness, diverting resources from other essential services.

This is not sustainable. The housing crisis is not only limiting where people can live it is limiting what this country can achieve economically. The Taskforce found that high housing costs are stifling labour mobility, undermining productivity, and exacerbating regional inequalities. In cities like Manchester, Leeds and Oxford, economic growth is being throttled by unaffordable housing and ageing infrastructure.

For local government, the opportunity presented by the New Towns programme is enormous but so is the responsibility. Councils will be central to the success of this initiative. They will need to lead on strategic planning, collaborate across boundaries, and innovate in delivery. Whether through development corporations, joint ventures or direct commissioning, local authorities will shape the vision, coordinate infrastructure, and ensure that new towns meet the needs of both current and future residents.

“Only government can provide the confidence for long-term investment, innovation in building and design, the urgent acceleration of infrastructure provision… and effective cooperation across departments.” Sir Michael Lyons, Chair of the New Towns Taskforce

The Taskforce recommends that each new town delivers at least 10,000 homes, with a minimum of 40 percent affordable housing half of which should be for social rent. These communities must be planned around mass transit, green infrastructure, and early delivery of schools, healthcare and community spaces. They must be governed by long-term stewardship models that protect public assets and empower residents.

This is a generational moment. The decisions made now will determine the quality of life for thousands of people for decades to come. Local government must be ready to lead with ambition, collaborate with confidence, and innovate with purpose. The New Towns programme offers a chance to restore public trust in planning, unlock economic potential, and create communities that are not only liveable, but loved.