PRESS RELEASE : New Towns Taskforce set to deliver major housebuilding push [September 2024]

• Eight seasoned experts join New Towns Taskforce to deliver new towns that could provide hundreds of thousands of new homes.
• Group’s first meeting was held today in post-war new town Milton Keynes.
• Taskforce to report back on potential locations to ministers next year.

Ambitious plans for the largest post-war housebuilding programme are moving at pace as the final members of a new specialist Taskforce were appointed today.

Eight industry experts now have a seat at the table of the New Towns Taskforce, alongside Chair, Sir Michael Lyons, and Deputy Chair, Dame Kate Barker. They include key players across planning, infrastructure delivery, architecture and urban regeneration.

The group will now push ahead with the vision for new towns – creating largescale communities that could deliver hundreds of thousands of high-quality homes to tackle the national housing crisis and drive economic growth across the country.

The Taskforce met for the first time today in Milton Keynes, a successful post-war town, confirming the responsibilities for each member, laying the groundwork to identify appropriate locations and learning the lessons from previous efforts to build new towns.

They were also joined by the Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Minister who spoke remotely with members during the day.

Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner said:

Today marks a momentous step in our journey to deliver the next generation of new towns and transform the lives of millions of working people in every part of the country.

We want to see new communities with real character –providing genuinely affordable, safe and secure homes, much-needed infrastructure and well-paying jobs.

With a strong team of experts standing by his side, I have every confidence in Sir Michael’s leadership and his Taskforce is working at pace to make sure our long-term ambition becomes a reality.

The Taskforce’s mission is already underway, with members leading a series of workstreams, and set to report back in 12 months. Its areas of work will include:

• Identifying and reviewing high potential locations for new towns.
• Agreeing principles and standards that must be met to provide good quality places.
• Exploring new ways to attract future funding and investment.
• Finding practical solutions to remove barriers that will unlock the delivery of new towns.

This work will form the publication of the final report due to land on ministers’ desks next year, with plans to engage with mayors, local leaders and communities in the coming months.

Housing and Planning Minister, Matthew Pennycook said:

I am really pleased that the New Towns Taskforce has held its first meeting today.

It brings together a wealth of experience from across the industry, and I look forward to engaging with it over the months ahead as it works to identify the most suitable locations across the country for large-scale new communities.

Today’s meeting also confirmed working arrangements for the Taskforce who will report back to the Deputy Prime Minister on a monthly basis, and they will be supported by officials across the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Homes England every step of the way.

This involves the creation of a New Towns Code that developers will have to follow to ensure new towns are great places to live and will include the golden rule of 40% affordable housing.

Chair of the New Towns Taskforce, Sir Michael Lyons said:

I am very pleased to chair the first meeting of the Taskforce today. We have an important agenda to work through over the next 12 months to ensure that the next generation of new towns deliver the government’s plans for economic growth and housing ambitions.

I look forward to working with our very experienced Taskforce members to provide the Government with robust recommendations within a year.

The government is already taking immediate action to ramp up housing supply and boost economic growth by reintroducing mandatory housing targets for councils through an updated National Planning Policy Framework to help deliver 1.5 million homes over the next five years.

Large housing sites facing blockages in the development system will also be fast-tracked through the New Homes Accelerator programme, which will see planning experts deployed on the ground to support local councils and housebuilders to get Britain building again.

This is alongside the landmark £150 million partnership recently signed by Homes England to act as a master developer that will unlock largescale brownfield developments across the country, ranging from 1,000 to more than 10,000 homes.

New Towns Taskforce Members:

Sir Michael Lyons

• Sir Michael Lyons is the Chair of the New Towns Taskforce.
• Sir Michael is the non-executive Chairman of the English Cities Fund, a joint venture set up by three partners – including Homes England – which has large scale regeneration developments in London, Liverpool, Plymouth, Salford and Wakefield.
• He is also the non-executive Chairman of SQW Ltd and has spent 26 years in local government, including 17 years as Chief Executive of three major UK local authorities including Birmingham City Council.
• He has been a member of the boards of Redrow homes and Sage Housing as well as a strategic adviser on public asset management and regeneration to the commercial real estate and investment firm CBRE. He was also a former Chair of the BBC.
• He previously chaired the Housing Commission in 2014 established by Ed Miliband, which set out how the UK can boost housing supply. He also led the national ‘Lyons Inquiry into Local Government’ in 2007 about workings and funding of local government which argued for greater devolution and emphasised the local authority’s role in ‘placeshaping’.

Dame Kate Barker

• Dame Kate Barker is the Deputy Chair of the New Towns Taskforce.
• Dame Kate chairs the trustee for the Universities Superannuation Scheme, and is also a Church Commissioner for the Church of England. She chairs the Governing Council of the Productivity Institute.
• She was a former non-executive director at Taylor Wimpey plc, at Man Group plc and at the Yorkshire Building Society. She was an external member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee between 2001 and 2010.
• During that time, she was commissioned by the government to conduct a major independent policy review of UK Housing Supply in 2004 followed by a review of Land Use Planning in 2006. She has also authored a book titled ‘Housing: where’s the plan’ and was previously a Commissioner for the National Infrastructure Commission.

Bill Hughes

• Bill is Global Head of Real Assets and Co-Head of Private Markets at Legal & General.
• He plays an active role in the wider infrastructure and housing industry, having been Chair of the Property Industry Alliance since 2016.
• Bill is also a Global Governing Trustee of the Urban Land Institute and is on the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard (NZCBS) Governance Board.
• Previously, Bill was CEO at RREEF UK and Deputy Managing Director at Schroder Property Investment Management.

Diane Coyle

• Dame Diane Coyle is an economist and Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge.
• She is also a Director of the Productivity Institute, a Fellow of the Office for National Statistics, and an academic adviser to the CMA.
• Diane was awarded a DBE for her contribution to economic policy in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours.

Eamonn Boylan

• Eamonn Boylan has over 40 years of expertise in local government, including Chief Executive of Stockport, Greater Manchester CA and Transport for Greater Manchester.
• He is currently interim CEO of Manchester City Council and Chair of Stockport Mayoral Development Corporation.
• Eamonn has significant experience in leading large regeneration projects, including Ancoats and Hulme in Manchester.

Helen Gordon

• Helen is the CEO of Grainger, the UK’s largest publicly listed residential landlord and Build to Rent developer.
• She has been in position since 2016, having previously working at RBS and Legal & General.
• Helen has a wealth of experience developing new towns, working on the development of Milton Keynes early in her career.
• She was also formally the president of the British Property Foundation and is Vice Chair of the European Public Real Estate Association.

Kate Henderson

• Kate is the Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, the voice of England’s housing associations.
• She is currently a member of several government panels including the Rough Sleeping Advisory Panel and the Social Housing Quality Expert Challenge Panel.
• She was previously Chief Executive of the Town and Country Planning Association.

Nick Raynsford

• Nick is the current President of the Town and Country Planning Association and author of the 2018 Raynsford Review of Planning.
• Nick was an MP from 1986 to 2015 and held multiple ministerial positions including Minister of State for Housing and Planning, Minister for London and Minister of State for Local and Regional Government.
• Since leaving Parliament he has held a number of positions including Deputy Chairman of Crossrail, Chair of CICAIR and a Director of Pocket Living.

Sowmya Parthasarathy

• Sowmya is an architect and urban designer at ARUP, with over 30 years of global experience. She has been involved in award-winning masterplans, strategic plans, and urban design guides, such as London’s 2012’s Olympic Legacy Masterplan.
• Sowmya is also a UK Design Council Ambassador, serves as a Design Advocate for the Mayor of London and sits on the London Design Review Panel.

Wei Yang

• Dr Wei is a town planner and urban designer. She is CEO of the Digital Task Force for Planning and Chairman of Wei Yang & Partners.
• Wei currently serves as the Chair of the Construction Industry Council and a member of the UN Habitat World Urban Campaign Steering Committee.
• Previously, Wei was President of the Royal Town Planning Institute for 2021