From Chandigarh to Cheshire: can Britain finally get new towns right?
What can a new town in Worcestershire learn from the futuristic Indian city of Chandigarh? And can the would-be planners of Adlington, Cheshire pick up a few tips from Paris?
Versions of those questions have been posed and answered by experts at the Royal Town Planning Institute this week, who certainly think so – and have urged the government to learn lessons from ‘boring, soul-less’ post-war UK settlements as it draws up detailed plans for a new generation of new towns.
Last year, a specially appointed government task force recommended a short-list of a dozen locations for would-be new towns of 10,000 homes or more, part of government plans to meet its stated building targets of 1.5m homes by the end of parliament.
If those proposals get off the drawing board and into delivery, they would represent the first new settlements designed in the UK for more than 50 years, and the most recent since Milton Keynes and Telford got the green light as part of the country’s third wave of new town building in 1967.
The Midlands is the location for just one of the 12 planned new towns, at Wychavon near Worcester. Other locations in the North of England include Adlington in Cheshire, and an urban expansion in Manchester known as Victoria North. Around 13,000 homes are also planned at Leeds South Bank.
Now, new research from the Royal Town Planning Institute, which represents 27,000 town planners in over 80 countries, says the government needs to think more creatively in order to make towns such as Wychavon a success – urging ministers to learn from a range of case studies around the world and avoid “cookie cutter” layouts of large modern housing schemes.
As part of its research, which looked at eight different new towns around the world to draw its conclusions, it said the government needed to tackle the “mixed reputation” of the UK’s post war new towns, in order to restore public confidence in large-scale building programmes.
The Corbusier-designed Palace of Assembly in Chandigarh, one of eight world cities analysed for the report. Credit: Chiara, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
In a foreword to the RTPI’s “Futureproof New Towns” report, Dr Daniel Slade, head of practice and research, said case studies drawn from as far afield as Paris, Freiberg and Chandigarh showed the potential of new towns to overcome “pre-conceived ideas” about place-making.
“On one hand, a new generation of new towns could drive national renewal and growth through sustainable, attractive and just development. They could provide homes for thousands of people over many decades, just as the UK’s post-war new towns are currently home to around 2.8m people,” he said.
“On the other hand, if they are unsustainable, unpopular, or fail to meet expectations, new towns could bring significant environmental, economic, and social costs. The popular perception of planning, and the nation’s wider ability to imagine then bring into being better places, is also on the line.
“The research is also clear that the UK absolutely has the capacity to deliver places like this, but to do so on a consistent basis policy makers must learn lessons from these international examples.”
Lessons identified in the report include the need for a consistent approach to planning policy, the importance of master-planning to offer a “clear but flexible” vision, and the importance of linking developments into local transport networks.
A full version of the Future Proof New Towns report containing all four key recommendations is available to view online at the RTPI’s website.
Lead author of the report, Professor Alex Lord, University of Liverpool, said: “In Freiburg, the research team found powerful early engagement through a public ‘festival’ sprouted genuine interest in development from local residents.
“It’s one of the greatest lessons we can take from this research. When planners and local governments bring the communities along with them, they can create places where people truly want to live.”
The Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government is currently creating environmental assessments for each of the 12 new towns recommended by the task force, with consultation due to begin shortly afterwards.
