Social Housing Weekly - 22 July 2024

New Towns? Never heard of them mate.

Did you enjoy our new contrarian format last week with Peter and I presenting opposing views? Good, because we're back at it this week!

Peter is all in on Labour's New Towns policy, claiming it has (almost) no downsides. I recall supporting Lisa "Towns" Nandy during Jeremy Corbyn's leadership bid in 2015, so I'm by no means anti-towns, old or new. But, new towns policies do seem to say, 'didn't win the live-where-you-want lottery? Too bad.'

People want to live in cities like London, Manchester, Bristol, or Birmingham. They want to live close to work, history, culture, and essential services. Long commutes are the bane of London's productivity— this is a hill I will die on (while riding Southeastern Rail no doubt). Why would we want to make this worse?

New towns could be perfectly charming, and I'm trying to shake off the Milton Keynes stereotype in my mind, to acknowledge their role in solving the housing crisis. Yet, Peter's excitement eludes me.

It seems unfair to ask the younger and the poorer, who didn't win the birth-year lottery, born into a world where a three-bedroom Hackney flat cost you a cup of tea and a halfpenny*, to leave cities where they grew up and move a 'commutable distance away'. 

*"We paid 12% interest on that halfpenny, don't forget that you young'uns."

Harriet Shone

LCA Director

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New homes with (almost) no downsides

In praise of Labour's new towns policy - by Peter Lord

Last week, my colleague Harriet stated that here is a dichotomy in providing new homes: do you build out (sprawl) or up (densification)? Of course, there is a third option - you can build new. And this is exactly what Labour is proposing to do with its new towns policy.

So keen am I to extol the merits of this idea that I am writing this week's update from a café in Poundbury, King Charles III's new (ish) town on the edge of Dorchester. The Duchy of Cornwall extols Poundbury as being "built on the principles of architecture and urban planning" and, indeed, of being "a vision of Britain." All nostalgia aside, the appeal of somewhere like this is obvious: real, unrestricted town planning with a blank slate, has to trump squeezing new homes, amenities, transport links and urban miscellany into existing, already densely populated, communities. For me, the attraction of the new towns concept is that it would enable the creation of homes at an impressive scale with (almost) no downsides. Fears of over-development, conservation zones, daylight / sunlight implications, antiquated infrastructure which cannot easily be updated; all of these problems could be completely eliminated by quality design where architecture and town planning are set free from compromise.

The Chartered Institute of Housing certainly supports Labour's new towns concept, stating that the government should employ them to "meet England’s housing needs at scale" The opportunity to create affordable, high-quality homes, which form new communities has been praised by many commentators.

So a policy with no downsides? As with many of Labour's housing plans, we are still waiting for the crucial detail. Any new towns will need good commuter links to Britain's big cities, without compromising the green belt, which could prove a challenge, but surely not an unsurmountable one. New towns with new railway links and other infrastructure upgrades would certainly not hurt the government's chances of increasing economic growth.

On top of all of this, and if you still need convincing, theoretically much lower land prices per home should mean that it is possible to deliver high proportion of social homes. Hopefully we do not have long to wait, as Labour has pledged to select the first new town site by the end of this year.

Housing in the headlines

Reeves has no plans for rent controls

Green Street News reports that the Chancellor has confirmed that the Labour Government will not introduce rent controls in the private sector and will not devolve powers to regional mayors to implement rent caps. According to Green Street, Reeves has been ‘spooked’ by the industry reaction to rent controls used by the Scottish Government where a shortage of private rental homes grew ‘overnight.’

Government commission announces recommendations

The Government’s independent Building Back Britain Commission has recommended tackling low productivity through delivering new housing close to workplaces, better transport connectivity, and improving access to high-speed internet. In its initial report, the group (which includes business leaders from British Land, Microsoft and London Gatwick Airport) also called for greater parity of education and training between university courses and vocational and adult education, which former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also urged.

The grey commuter belt

The Telegraph reports on the potential areas in England which see house prices impacted following the Government’s pledge to deliver new homes on so-called ‘grey belt’ land in the Green Belt. The report cites analysis by Knight Frank showing 41% of brownfield sites in England’s Green Belt are located in London’s commuter belt, particularly in Buckinghamshire. Data from LandTech suggests that grey belt sites could deliver up to 318,000 homes from 0.6% of Green Belt land.