New towns in the United Kingdom Totally Explained

Everything about New Towns In The United Kingdom totally explained

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

Early new towns

Letchworth, Hertfordshire (founded in 1903 through the Garden city movement)
Welwyn Garden City (founded in 1920 through the Garden city movement) and Hatfield
Wythenshawe (built on what used to be Cheshire land in the 1920s as a Manchester overspill estate but wasn't completed until the early 1970s)

England

First wave

The first wave was to help alleviate the housing shortages post-World War II, in 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)

Bracknell (designated 17 June 1949)

Corby (designated 1 April 1950)

Crawley (designated 9 January 1947)

Harlow (designated 25 March 1947)

Hemel Hempstead (designated 4 February 1947)

Newton Aycliffe (designated 19 April 1947 as 'Aycliffe New Town')

Peterlee (designated 10 March 1948, as 'Easington New Town')

Stevenage (designated 1 November 1946)

Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield (both designated 20 May 1948)

Second wave

The second wave (1961-64) was to help assuage housing short falls. Two of the below (Redditch and Telford) are situated near the West Midlands conurbation, another two (Runcorn and Skelmersdale) are situated near Merseyside.

Redditch (designated April 10, 1964)

Runcorn (designated April 10, 1964)

Skelmersdale (designated October 9, 1961)

Dawley New Town (designated January 16, 1963)

Washington (designated July 24, 1964) Cramlington and Killingworth were constructed from the 1960s by local authorities but were not designated new towns.

Third wave

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 (designated March 26, 1970)

Milton Keynes (designated January 23, 1967)

Northampton (designated February 14, 1968)

Peterborough (designated July 21, 1967)

Telford (designated November 29, 1968)

Warrington (designated April 26, 1968)

Modern developments

No new towns have been designated since 1970.

Cambourne

Northstowe (planned)

Poundbury

Ebbsfleet (In Progress)

Sherford

Wales

Cwmbran (designated November 4, 1949)

Newtown (designated December 18, 1967)

Modern developments

Tircoed

Coed Darcy (In progress)

Scotland

Cumbernauld (designated December 9 1955) (extended March 19 1973)

East Kilbride (designated May 6 1947)

Glenrothes (designated June 30 1948)

Irvine (designated November 9 1966)

Livingston (designated April 16 1962)

Stonehouse (designated July 17 1973) never built.

Future Developments

Ravenscraig

Tornagrain

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 July 26, 1965)

Londonderry (designated February 5, 1969) (see above)

Future developments

On 13 May, 2007, Gordon Brown, who was shortly to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, announced that he'd designate ten new "eco-towns" to ease demand for low cost housing. The towns, of approximately 20,000 population each, at least 5000 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.
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.

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