New Towns Acts

The New Towns Acts were a series of Acts of Parliament to found new settlements or to expand substantially existing ones, to establish Development Corporations to deliver them, and to create a Commission to wind up the Corporations and take over their assets and liabilities. Of these, the more substantive acts were the New Towns Act 1946 and the Town Development Act 1952.

New Towns were developed in three generations.

• The first generation set up in the late 1940s concentrated predominantly on housing development on greenbelt sites with little provision for cars; eight were in a ring around London.
• The second generation in the early 1960s included a wider mix of uses and used more innovative architecture.
• The third generation towns were larger; they included Milton Keynes (designated in 1965) and Central Lancashire, currently the last (designated in 1970). These later new towns tended to be designed around car travel.^[1]

By 2002, about 2 million people were housed in the New Towns, in about 500,000 homes.^[1]

Background[]

The 1944, Abercrombie Plan for London proposed eight new towns within 50 miles (80 km) of London for up to 500,000 people from inner London. Similar recommendations were made for other major conurbations including Manchester and Birmingham. The 1945 Attlee Government set up a New Towns Commission^[2] to formally consider how best to repair and rebuild urban communities ravaged in World War II.

In 1945, John Reith, 1st Baron Reith was appointed as chair of the New Towns Commission. The commission concluded that there was a need to construct new towns using the instrument of development corporations supported by central government. The New Towns Act 1946 cemented this vision in 1946 and New Towns were born.

Reith Commission[]

The Reith Commission recommended that:

• the new town developments should have a population of up to 60,000
• they should be built as far as possible on greenfield sites
• there should be predominantly single family housing at low density
• the homes had to be organised in neighbourhoods around a primary school and nursery schools, a pub and shops selling staple foods
• there should be a balance of housing and jobs ^[3]

New Towns Act 1946[]

An Act to provide for the creation of new towns by means of development corporations, and for purposes connected therewith.^[4]

The New Towns Act 1946 was the act that put into law the conclusions of the New Towns Commission. ") The act authorised the government to designate areas as new towns, and passing development control functions to a New Town Development Corporation. Several new towns were created in the years following its passing. The Act was replaced by the New Towns Act 1965 and, later, the New Towns Act 1981.

New Town Development Corporations[]

The act set up Development Corporations which were responsible for the management, design and development of New Towns. These were Public Corporations financed by the Government through Treasury loans. The boards were appointed by Central Government; importantly, they were given planning and compulsory purchase order powers.

Their first task was to draw up development frameworks for a mix of housing, offices, industrial development, transport infrastructure and open space.^[5]

Town Development Act 1952[]

Although not formally a "New Towns Act", the Town Development Act uses the powers established by the 1946 Act to expand existing towns to achieve the same or similar purposes.^[6][7] The introduction to the act gives its purpose: "An Act to encourage town development in county districts for the relief of congestion or over-population elsewhere, and for related purposes, [etc]".^[8] It was this act that enabled London County Council to establish its overspill estates as far away as Cornwall and Northamptonshire. By 1973, over 40 new and expanded towns were described in Parliament as "London overspill".^[9]

New Towns Acts 1952, 1953, 1955, 1958, 1964, 1966 and 1969[]

These were brief acts to increase the maximum borrowings permitted to fund the developments.^{[10] [11][12] [13] [14] [15] [16]}

New Towns Act 1959[]

An Act to make, as respects England and Wales, new provision in place of section fifteen of the New Towns Act, 1946, as to the disposal of the undertakings of development corporations and other matters arising when a development corporation has achieved or substantially achieved the purposes for which it is established; to amend the law relating to development corporations by increasing the limit on the advances which may be made to them under sub section (1) of section twelve of that Act, by providing for housing subsidies to be wholly or partly withheld in respect of dwellings disposed of by them, and by authorising them to make contributions towards the provision of amenities; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.^[17]

The New Towns Act 1959 established the Commission for New Towns.^[a] Under this Act, "the Minister of Housing and Local Government was authorised to set up a Commission on New Towns to take over the functions of the development corporations whose purposes had, in his opinion, been achieved or substantially achieved".^[18]

New Towns Act 1965[]

The New Towns Act 1965 substantially rewrote and consolidated the 1946 act.^[20] While continuing the authority to establish further new towns, the act gives the Commission for the New Towns the task of "taking over, holding, managing and turning to account the property previously vested in the development corporation for a new town".^[20]: 1314

Several new towns were created in the years following its passing. Its most immediate use was the designation of Milton Keynes in 1967. The 1965 act replaced the 1946 act and was replaced in turn by the 1981 act.

New Towns Act (Northern Ireland) 1965[]

Since most of the acts did not apply to Northern Ireland (and some not to Scotland), an equivalent act was passed in 1965 by the Parliament of Northern Ireland.^[21] Following the act, Craigavon was designated in July 1965.^[22]

New Towns (Scotland) Act 1968[]

The New Towns (Scotland) Act 1968 established equivalent legal powers in Scotland.^[23]

New Towns Acts 1971, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1980, 1982 and 1987[]

Few of these Acts are available online, so their purpose remains to be identified.^{[citation needed]} The 1982 act permits an increase in authorised borrowing.^[24]

New Towns (Amendment) Act 1976[]

Among other functions, this act provided for "the interest of the Commission for the New Towns and [the] development corporations in dwellings and of any associated property, rights, liabilities and obligations" to be transferred to district councils.^[25]

New Towns (Scotland) Act 1977[]

This act amended the Scotland act of 1968, notably to include the option to cancel a new town proposal.^[26]

New Towns Act 1981[]

The New Towns Act 1981 is an "Act to consolidate certain enactments relating to new towns and connected matters, being (except for section 43 of the New Towns Act 1965 and sections 126 and 127 of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 and certain related provisions) enactments which apply only to England and Wales."^[27]

Enterprise and New Towns (Scotland) Act 1990[]

This act replaced the Scottish Development Agency and the Highlands and Islands Development Board with Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and authorised development of further new towns in Scotland.^[28]

New Towns (Amendment) Act 1994[]

This act establishes sub-committees of the Commission for New Towns, with authority to act on matters proper to them.^[29]

Towns[]

The following towns were created under various New Towns Acts:

England[]

Name	County[b]	Year designated	Built‑up area population[c]	Note
Basildon	Essex	1949	144,859[30]	Population is for Basildon and Wickford built-up area
Basingstoke	Hampshire	1961	107,642[31]	London overspill expansion, not New Towns Act
Bracknell	Berkshire	1949	77,256[32]
Central Lancashire	Lancashire	1970	313,332[33]	Development of Preston, Leyland and Chorley urban area, using New Towns Act powers.
Corby	Northamptonshire	1950	56,810[34]
Crawley	Sussex	1947	180,508[35]	Existing town substantially expanded. Urban area includes Gatwick Airport and Horley
Harlow	Essex	1947	82,059[36]
Hatfield	Hertfordshire	1948	41,677[37]	Urban area includes Colney Heath and Wenham Green
Hemel Hempstead	Hertfordshire	1947	94,932[38]	Built-up area includes Kings Langley
Milton Keynes	Buckinghamshire	1967	229,941[39]	Existing towns and villages substantially expanded and infilled. Urban area now includes Newport Pagnell and Woburn Sands, which are outside the original designated area.
Newton Aycliffe	County Durham	1947	25,964[40]
Northampton	Northamptonshire	1968	215,963[41]	Existing town significantly expanded
Peterborough	Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire[d]	1967	163,379[42]	Existing city substantially expanded
Peterlee	County Durham	1948	27,871[43]
Redditch	Worcestershire	1964	82,253[44]	Existing town substantially expanded
Runcorn	Cheshire	1963	62,872[45]
Skelmersdale	Lancashire	1961	34,455[46]
Stevenage	Hertfordshire	1946	90,232[47]
Swindon	Wiltshire	1952	185,609[48]	Existing town substantially expanded
Telford	Shropshire	1963 and 1968	147,980[49]	Existing towns substantially expanded and infilled.
Warrington	Lancashire	1968	165,456[50]	Existing town substantially expanded
Washington	Tyne and Wear	1964	67,085[51]

Scotland[]

Name	County[b]	Year designated	Built‑up area population[c]	Note
Cumbernauld	North Lanarkshire	1955	52,270[52]
East Kilbride	South Lanarkshire	1947	74,395[52]
Glenrothes	Fife	1948	39,277[52]
Irvine	North Ayrshire	1966	33,698[52]	Ancient Royal Burgh, substantially expanded
Livingston	West Lothian	1962	56,269[52]

Wales[]

Name	County[b]	Year designated	Built‑up area population[c]	Note
Cwmbran	Gwent	1949	46,915[53]	Now part of the Newport built-up area
Newtown	Powys	1967	11,357[54]	Substantial expansion of existing town

Northern Ireland[]

Name	County[b]	Year designated	Built‑up area population[c]	Note
Craigavon	Armagh	1965	64,193[55]	Intended as a linear town to encompass Portadown and Lisburn, but has not yet done so. The population figure is for this statistical area and thus may be misleading.
Antrim	Antrim	1966	25,353[56]	Expansion of an existing town
Ballymena	Antrim	1967	29,467[57]	Expansion of existing town and nearby villages
Derry	Londonderry	1969	91,602[58]	Expansion of an existing city

See also[]

• Millennium Communities Programme
• English land law
• Town and country planning in the United Kingdom

Similar spelling[]

• Newtown Act 1747–8 act of the Parliament of Ireland

Notes[]

References[]

Sources[]

External links[]

• Text of the New Towns Act 1946 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.