Starmer warned New Towns programme ‘could fail’
A cross-party group of Lords has told Prime Minister the Government needs to show the necessary leadership to make the New Towns plan work.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer (main picture) is being warned that his New Towns programme will fail unless the Government proves it can make it happen.
A cross-party House of Lords committee says that a vision is not enough to deliver “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”.
And public transport links, schools, and hospitals must be built first, the Built Environment Committee warns.
Once-in-a-lifetime
New Towns form a key part of what Prime Minister Keir Starmer described as “the largest housebuilding programme since the post-war era”.
Now, Lord Gascoigne, Chair of the committee, says: “The Government’s new towns programme is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build genuinely affordable, high-quality homes and to create communities where people want to live.
A vision alone will not be enough to get these new towns built.”
“But a vision alone will not be enough to get these new towns built: the Government needs to show that it has the grip necessary to drive the programme forward and make it happen,” he says.
“Now that the New Towns Taskforce has published its shortlist of locations for 12 new towns the Government needs to set out, in explicit terms, how it is planning to fund and deliver them.”
Key element
Public support is “fundamental to the success of the programme”, and the Government needs to “work hard, day in and day out, to articulate a clear and ambitious vision for its programme”.
“A key element of this must be to inspire developers and planning authorities to use the new towns as a model for future development,” Lord Gascoigne says.
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