Election hopeful demands New Towns to solve housing shortage

Labour must build “a new generation of New Towns” if it gets into government, according to a parliamentary candidate linked to an influential think tank.

Chris Curtis, who is standing for election in Milton Keynes North, says that his party should build more places like his constituency and home town in a new essay for the Social Market Foundation think tank. 

“The solution to Britain’s housing crisis is a vast endeavour, building the next generation of New Towns will be critical”, he says.

The essay is the latest part of a new collection from the Social Market Foundation, ‘Class of 2024: future MPs on the social market’, which showcases ideas from prospective MPs across the major parties.

In his essay, Curtis argues why New Towns could be the solution to the issues facing homeowners and renters in the UK. “

Britain is not building enough genuinely affordable new homes, and we are all facing the consequences. It’s time for a new generation of New Towns” Curtis writes.

“The scale of New Towns means that we can build hundreds of thousands of affordable houses at scale and at pace. The longer we leave it, the worse our housing shortage becomes” he comments. The government should bring in a range of partners to single sites to ensure that towns are build quickly, minimising the delays that come with smaller projects.

Curtis also argues that while areas like Milton Keynes have in the past been labelled simply as “commuter towns”, there is an opportunity for New Towns to become “their own economic powerhouses: new, exciting places that companies invest in, talent flocks to, and economies boom”.

The New Towns model means that homes and the infrastructure needed to support them can be built simultaneously. Profits made from selling the new houses can fund new transport networks, pedestrian and cycling routes, and services such as schools, hospitals and GP surgeries, Curtis adds.