House of Lords Built Environment Committee has responded to New Towns Taskforce Report and the Government’s response.
UK Parliament writes:
Two weeks ago, in anticipation of the imminent publication of the New Towns Taskforce’s report, the Built Environment Committee released the initial findings of its own inquiry into the Government’s new towns programme. The Committee’s report—New Towns: Laying the Foundations—is due to be published in mid-October. However, hours before this report went to press, the Government published the Taskforce report and its response.
Taskforce report
The Committee is impressed by the thoroughness and depth of the Taskforce’s report, and pleased to see how closely much of it matches the Committee’s own conclusions and recommendations. Given the very evident enthusiasm of the new Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Committee is hopeful that there will be real progress with the new towns programme during this parliament.
However, this optimism is tempered by a degree of caution: without the commitment to significant additional central government funding, the programme will struggle to deliver any viable new towns or expanded settlements. Furthermore, the Government’s response makes it clear that it still has much work to do in terms of establishing its roadmap for the programme and we hope that the Strategic Environmental Assessment of the potential locations is a genuine first step towards getting spades in the ground.
Lord Gascoigne, Chair of the Committee said: ‘I am very pleased to see how carefully and deeply the Taskforce has fulfilled its remit to produce a detailed and rigorous report. I am even more pleased to see how closely the Taskforce recommendations echo those of the Built Environment Committee. In particular, the alignment between the Committee and the Task Force on issues such as community involvement, stewardship, and the opportunity to test new ways of funding infrastructure shows that the Government should be bold in taking forward thinking on these issues. The Secretary of State has committed to ‘build, baby, build!’. My challenge to him is to follow through on this promise and do so to the highest standards. The country urgently needs a visionary housebuilding programme that captures the public’s imagination and delivers the ambition and quality of the post-war New Towns Programme. Now is the time to act.’
