New towns in the United Kingdom

Welwyn Garden City, one of the early new towns

Below is a list of some of the new towns in the United Kingdom created under the various New Town Acts of the 20th century. Some earlier towns were developed as Garden Cities or overspill estates early in the twentieth century. The New Towns proper were planned to disperse population following the Second World War under the powers of the New Towns Act 1946 and later acts. They were not in fact new, but developed around historic cores. Later developments included the Expanded Towns.

Designated new towns were removed from local-authority control and placed under the supervision of a Development Corporation. The Corporations were later disbanded and their assets split between local authorities and, in England, the Commission for New Towns (now English Partnerships).

Garden cities

• Letchworth, Hertfordshire (founded in 1903 through the Garden city movement).
• Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire (founded in 1920 through the Garden city movement).

Overspill estates

• Out-county London County Council housing developments, of which Becontree was the largest
• Wythenshawe, built on what used to be Cheshire land in the 1920s as a Manchester overspill estate but was not completed until the early 1970s.
• Various London overspill estates
• Castlemilk, Drumchapel, Easterhouse and Pollok in Glasgow

England

First wave

Humorous animated film by the Central Office of Information about post-war new towns and their planning

The first wave was intended to help alleviate the housing shortages following World War II, beyond the green belt around London. A couple of sites in County Durham were also designated. These designations were made under the New Towns Act 1946.

• Basildon, Essex (designated 4 January 1949)^[1]
• Bracknell, Berkshire (designated 17 June 1949)^[2]
• Corby, Northamptonshire (designated 1 April 1950)^[3]
• Crawley, Sussex (designated 9 January 1947)^[4]
• Harlow, Essex (designated 25 March 1947)^[5]
• Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire (designated 4 February 1947)^[6]
• Newton Aycliffe, County Durham (designated 19 April 1947 as Aycliffe New Town)^[7]
• Peterlee, County Durham (designated 10 March 1948, as Easington New Town)^[8]
• Stevenage, Hertfordshire (designated 11 November 1946)^[9]
• Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, Hertfordshire (both designated 20 May 1948)^[10]

Second wave

The town of Telford (formerly Dawley New Town) was created from a number of smaller towns which were joined together around a central service area.

The second wave (1961–64) was likewise initiated to help assuage housing shortfalls. Two of the locations below (Redditch and Dawley New Town—later renamed Telford) are situated near the West Midlands conurbation; another two (Runcorn and Skelmersdale) are situated near Merseyside.

• Dawley New Town, Shropshire (designated 16 January 1963)^[11]
• Redditch, Worcestershire (designated 10 April 1964)^[12]
• Runcorn, Cheshire (designated 10 April 1964)^[13]
• Skelmersdale, Lancashire (designated 9 October 1961)^[14]
• Washington, Tyne and Wear (designated 24 July 1964)^[15]

Cramlington and Killingworth were constructed from the 1960s by local authorities but were not designated new towns.

Third wave

New Town architecture in Peterborough

The third and last wave of new towns (1967–70) allowed for additional growth chiefly further north from the previous London new towns, with a few developments between Liverpool and Manchester. Dawley New Town was re-designated as Telford New Town, with a much larger area.

• Central Lancashire, Lancashire (designated 26 March 1970)^[16]
• Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire (designated 23 January 1967)^[17]
• Northampton, Northamptonshire (designated 14 February 1968)^[18]
• Peterborough, Cambridgeshire (designated 21 July 1967)^[19]
• Telford, Shropshire (designated 29 November 1968)^[20]
• Warrington, Cheshire (designated 26 April 1968)^[21]

Modern developments

No new towns have been formally designated since 1970, but several new towns (in the literal sense) have been founded:

• Poundbury, Dorset
• Cambourne, Cambridgeshire
• Ebbsfleet, Kent
• Wixams, Bedfordshire
• Sherford, Devon
• Buckshaw Village, Lancashire
• Northstowe, Cambridgeshire (planned)

Future developments

On 13 May 2007, Gordon Brown, who was shortly to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, announced that he would designate ten new "eco-towns" to ease demand for low-cost housing. The towns, of approximately 20,000 population each—at least 5,000 homes—are planned to be "carbon-neutral" and will use locally generated sustainable-energy sources. Only one site was identified in the announcement: the former Oakington Barracks in Cambridgeshire. Local councils will be invited to provide sites for the remaining four towns.^[22]

The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) is advising the Government on the criteria and best practice in developing the eco-towns by producing a series of "worksheets" for developers.

Wales

• Cwmbran (designated 4 November 1949)^[23]
• Newtown (designated 18 December 1967)^[24]

Modern developments

• Coed Darcy (in progress)
• Tircoed

Scotland

• Cumbernauld (designated 9 December 1955,^[25] extended 19 March 1973)^[26]
• East Kilbride (designated 6 May 1947)^[27]
• Glenrothes (designated 30 June 1948)^[28]
• Irvine (designated 9 November 1966)^[29]
• Livingston (designated 16 April 1962)^[30]
• Stonehouse (designated 17 July 1973, never built)^[31]

Future developments

• Ravenscraig
• Tornagrain
• Owenstown
• Durieshill
• Shawfair

Northern Ireland

The New Towns Act (Northern Ireland) 1965 gave the Minister of Development of the Government of Northern Ireland the power to designate an area as a New Town, and to appoint a Development Commission. An order could be made to transfer municipal functions of all or part of any existing local authorities to the commission, which took the additional title of urban district council, although unelected. This was done in the case of Craigavon.

The New Towns Amendment Act (Northern Ireland) 1968 was passed to enable the establishment of the Londonderry Development Commission to replace the County Borough and rural district of Londonderry, and implement the Londonderry Area Plan. On April 3, 1969 the development commission took over the municipal functions of the two councils, the area becoming Londonderry Urban District.

• Craigavon (designated 26 July 1965)^[32]
• Derry (designated 5 February 1969) (see above)^[33]

See also

• Ebenezer Howard
• List of planned cities
• London overspill

Notes

1. ^ London Gazette: no. 38507. p. 145. 7 January 1949. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
2. ^ London Gazette: no. 38647. p. 3078. 21 June 1949. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
3. ^ London Gazette: no. 38878. p. 1671. 4 April 1950. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
4. ^ London Gazette: no. 37849. p. 231. 10 January 1947. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
5. ^ London Gazette: no. 37918. p. 1451. 28 March 1947. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
6. ^ London Gazette: no. 37875. p. 664. 7 February 1947. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
7. ^ London Gazette: no. 37940. p. 1858. 25 April 1947. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
8. ^ London Gazette: no. 38235. p. 1819. 12 March 1948. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
9. ^ London Gazette: no. 37785. p. 5536. 12 November 1946. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
10. ^ London Gazette: no. 38299. p. 3136. 25 May 1948. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
11. ^ London Gazette: no. 42898. p. 589. 18 January 1963. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
12. ^ London Gazette: no. 43296. p. 3202. 14 April 1964. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
13. ^ London Gazette: no. 43296. p. 3201. 14 April 1964. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
14. ^ London Gazette: no. 42484. p. 7296. 10 October 1961. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
15. ^ London Gazette: no. 43394. p. 6416. 28 July 1964. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
16. ^ London Gazette: no. 45079. p. 4187. 14 April 1970. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
17. ^ London Gazette: no. 44233. p. 827. 24 January 1967. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
18. ^ London Gazette: no. 44529. pp. 2088–2089. 20 February 1968. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
19. ^ London Gazette: no. 44377. p. 8515. 1 August 1967. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
20. ^ London Gazette: no. 44735. p. 13433. 13 December 1968. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
21. ^ London Gazette: no. 44576. p. 4907. 30 April 1968. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
22. ^ Brown to build ten eco towns, The Times Online, 13 May 2007
23. ^ London Gazette: no. 38756. p. 5318. 8 November 1949. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
24. ^ London Gazette: no. 44482. p. 14168. 28 December 1967. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
25. ^ Edinburgh Gazette: no. 17351. p. 746. 13 December 1955. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
26. ^ Edinburgh Gazette: no. 19218. p. 398. 19 March 1973. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
27. ^ Edinburgh Gazette: no. 16436. p. 189. 9 May 1947. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
28. ^ Edinburgh Gazette: no. 16556. pp. 299–300. 2 July 1948. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
29. ^ Edinburgh Gazette: no. 18509. p. 846. 11 November 1966. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
30. ^ Edinburgh Gazette: no. 18025. pp. 236–237. 17 April 1962. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
31. ^ Edinburgh Gazette: no. 19294. p. 951. 14 August 1973. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
32. ^ Belfast Gazette: no. 2317. p. 274. 6 August 1965. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
33. ^ [1] A commentary by the Government of Northern Ireland to accompany the Cameron Report incorporating an account of progress and a programme of action (CAIN web service)