The Government has announced that over 100 sites across England have come forward to be considered for next generation of new towns. Every town will have the potential to deliver at least 10,000 homes and required infrastructure to support them.
Richard Beresford, Chief Executive of the National Federation of Builders (NFB), said: “New Towns are key to solving the housing crisis as they can set affordable price points for homes, attract businesses with the promise of strategic employment land, and build all things a community needs to ensure housing and infrastructure are not competing for limited land availability.
"The Government should be commended for taking on the NIMBYs to deliver new towns, and it will greatly help them toward their 1.5m home target and delivery of sustainable and strategic growth.”
The Government also highlighted that the Homes Accelerator programme unblocked 20,000 homes, £1m extra funding for government agencies, £2m for the Building Safety Regulator and £3m in grants for local councils to bolster planning.
Rico Wojtulewicz, Head of Policy at the NFB, said: “New Towns are an opportunity to support SMEs by allocating sites specifically for them, which is important for housing diversification and because 73% of construction apprentices are trained by SMEs, who typically employ within 20 miles of their head offices. This makes SMEs key to reducing a reliance on immigrant labour and ensuring people have good careers.
"Supporting SMEs through new town planning would also rectify some of the criticisms made by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) about the planning system being anti-competitive and so reducing the quality and variety of new homes, while also being the reason SME market share continues to drop.”