Briefly describes the New Towns programme and discusses the topic areas that transferable lessons might be found for the planned large-scale housing development in the government's identified "Growth Areas".

Sets out the findings of the literature review and the transferable lessons under eight themes:

Identifies gaps in the literature for each theme. Makes recommendations on future research directions.

The research was conducted to identify lessons from the UK government’s programme to develop 321 statutory New Towns, under the 1946 and subsequent New Towns Acts, that might be transferable to the current Growth Areas initiative. The Growth Areas emerged from the government's Communities Plan, unveiled in early 2003, which included the identification of four major areas to accommodate large amounts of additional housing growth.

The research was entirely desk-based, including the identification of research-based and grey literature through literature searches of bibliographic databases and the New Towns Record database, a review of this literature under certain highlighted themes, and an extrapolation of transferable lessons.

Identifies several key lessons, conclusions and recommended actions under each theme. One key finding identified is that there is very little research-based material relating to the New Towns programme as a whole, which is both objective and useful, and suggests this is due to the fact that the NT programme has never been reviewed systematically. Recommends further desk-based research in two areas - other types of large scale development and new towns internationally - and a study that pulls together current best-practice in terms of development. Suggestst that if the lessons contained in the report are to be applied, those charged with applying them may need some training or guidance.

Department for Communities and Local Government:, tel. +44 (0)20 7944 4400

12/07/2006

Department of Planning, Oxford Brookes University

research

Urban Policy > Housing

Housing policy