The New Towns Taskforce met for the first time in September 2024 to begin its work making recommendations on the Government’s new towns programme aiming to deliver high-quality homes and drive economic growth nationwide.
The government’s New Towns Taskforce – chaired by Sir Michael Lyons – has appointed eight independent experts – including Bennett Professor of Public Policy, Diane Coyle – to drive forward its new towns programme. The group met for the first time on Tuesday 17 September 2024 in the post-war new town of Milton Keynes to begin their programme of work looking at housing needs and how a new phase of new towns could accelerate economic growth across the country.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Minister attended the first meeting to set out their ambition for the Taskforce, asking its members to identify and recommend locations for new towns within the next year, with a focus on supporting sustainable communities and helping to tackle the national housing crisis.
The group will report to the Deputy Prime Minister each month and receive support from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Homes England, as well as civil servants across government departments and agencies.
The members will submit a report to ministers next summer that considers key matters including: the strategic case for new towns; location identification and selection; placemaking; design and standards; funding, risk and institutional investment; and unlocking delivery and innovation.
Bennett Public Policy Professor, Diane Coyle, brings vast knowledge to the Taskforce, particularly on how best to invest, fund and measure an equitable, sustainable and resilient economy and society. She is the co-author of a recent Bennett Institute report which advocates for the government to adopt the concept of ‘Universal Basic Infrastructure’ (UBI) to address disparities, particularly in regions and towns experiencing economic decline and a lower quality of life.
Diane, who is also a Director of The Productivity Institute, a Fellow of the Office for National Statistics, and an academic adviser to the CMA (Competition & Markets Authority), says: “The government’s aim with its new towns programme is to create large-scale communities that could deliver hundreds of thousands of high-quality homes to tackle the national housing crisis and drive economic growth across the country. This initiative is both exciting and ambitious, but also presents considerable challenges that our task force will need to address.”
Image courtesy of GOV.UK: New Towns Taskforce members
Look out for our forthcoming report on “The value of social infrastructure in new towns”.
The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy.
