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The government is expected to announce on Sunday a programme to build 12 new towns across England in a bid to address the country’s housing crisis.
The housing secretary, Steve Reed, will unveil the initiative at Labour’s annual conference as it begins in Liverpool. The prime minister, Keir Starmer, described the proposals as “national renewal in action”.
It comes as the new towns taskforce, established in September last year, publishes a report with a raft of recommendations for fresh developments across the country. Labour is keen to present the proposals as a rejection of what it sees as the “quick fix” politics of Reform.
Reed will tell delegates that the project is modelled on the “housing boom” overseen by Clement Attlee’s postwar Labour government, which built more than one million homes between 1945 and 1951. Reed’s project will rely on public and private funding but the total anticipated cost is unclear. The taskforce is expected to say that, collectively, the new towns could deliver “up to 300,000” homes over the “coming decades”.
Reed, who became housing secretary just three weeks ago following the resignation of Angela Rayner, will say he will do whatever it takes to get Britain building to “restore the dream of home ownership” to thousands of families across the country.
He will say on Sunday: “We will fight for hard-working people, locked out of a secure home for too long by the Conservative government of blockers. This Labour government won’t sit back and let this happen. I will do whatever it takes to get Britain building. We’ve got to ‘build, baby, build’.
“That’s the way we put the key to a decent home in the pocket of everyone who needs a secure and affordable home. And not just homes, but communities, and not just communities but entire towns.
“This party built new towns after the war to meet our promise of homes fit for heroes. Now, with the worst economic inheritance since that war, we will once again build cutting-edge communities to provide homes fit for families of all shapes and sizes.
“I am launching the next generation of new towns taking the lessons from the postwar Labour government housing boom, mobilising the full power of the state to build a new generation of new towns.”
Locations under consideration include Tempsford, Bedfordshire, Crews Hill, north London and Leeds South Bank, though final decisions are yet to be made.
Each new town is expected to have at least 10,000 properties as well as GP surgeries, schools, green spaces and transport links. The taskforce will suggest that about 40% of the dwellings should be affordable homes, with 20% earmarked for social housing, it is understood.
Academics say Britain faces a shortage of about 4.3m homes, and there are record numbers of people living in temporary accommodation. Labour has pledged to build 1.5m new properties before the next general election, although analysts have cast doubt on whether this target is achievable.
