Unlocking the next generation of New Towns

Prior + Partners welcomes the Government’s recent announcement on the next generation of new towns as a vital step towards addressing the UK’s housing challenges with ambition, vision and responsibility.

With a proven track record in delivering sustainable, well-designed communities, we are well placed to support and strengthen this national endeavour. Our expertise spans visioning and masterplanning, economic case-making, all stages of planning including infrastructure delivery, as well as stakeholder and community engagement – all essential pillars for successful new towns.

Our portfolio includes our current role supporting Enfield Council at Crews Hill in London, one of Labour’s first twelve New Town locations, where we are developing a long-term vision and masterplan supported by a new SPD. Our work has focused on the creation of a digital evidence base as well as landowner and developer engagement to inform clear design development guidance, including proposals for a major new centre around Crews Hill station on existing “grey belt” land.

Our thinking on new towns was first set out in 21st Century New Communities (2021), a manifesto co-authored by Prior + Partners and the Urban Land Institute, informed by roundtables with leading industry voices. The report distilled lessons from best practice, setting out five core delivery principles and twelve foundations for success – a framework that continues to guide our work.

In the UK, we are pioneering approaches including at East Hemel for The Crown Estate, for Tendring District Council, Colchester City Council and Essex County Council at Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community, and for a number of sites ranging in scale and complexity for Homes England including promoting a national exemplar Garden Town West of Ifield, adjacent to Crawley, West Sussex.

Our work on behalf of the Cambridge Growth Company (CGC), who have appointed us under a team led by Buro Happold, is seeing us prepare a robust evidence base that will underpin a long-term growth strategy for Greater Cambridge. It will act as a foundation for identifying challenges and opportunities, policy development and a future spatial strategy and is enabling us to apply leading approaches to shape an evidenced and ambitious plan for the future.

Alongside these, we continue to shape some of the country’s most complex large-scale regeneration projects – including Bristol Temple Quarter and Southampton City Centre – and have authored long-term strategic visions for Old Oak Common as well as Thamesmead Waterfront – another of the government’s recommended new town locations. Here, our team have worked in partnership with Peabody and Lendlease to integrate new homes, jobs and community facilities with blue and green infrastructure, transport improvements, all in close collaboration with local communities.

Learning from a global exemplar of vision-led regeneration, our Place Economics team have also led an in-depth study to quantify and articulate the economic and social impacts of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park since its completion in 2012, and its role in reshaping London’s economic geography. The research distils a series of key drivers of success and lessons learned for large-scale regeneration and future Mayoral Development Corporations.

It is in this context that we must acknowledge the ever-changing national policy environment and the government’s emerging planning reform. Prior + Partners – who were recently named the RTPI planning consultancy of the year for 2024 – is at the forefront when it comes to understanding this evolving landscape, with our specialist team playing an active role in influencing government reforms including through the creation of the Strategic Planning Group, of which MHCLG and the Planning Inspectorate were involved. Spatial Development Strategies will play a central role in guiding large scale growth, infrastructure and environmental recovery as we shape a new era of ambitious and responsible development at scale. With Prior + Partners already supporting a number of emerging Strategic Planning Authorities, we know what it takes to plan at scale.

Internationally, we are delivering transformative new communities for Google in California, including a 10,000-home neighbourhood, offering insights into how technology and innovation will shape future places. In Abu Dhabi, we are intensifying a 4,028-hectare industrial zone into a green, mixed-use community, while in Serbia we are transforming 860 hectares of derelict farmland into a sustainable new district.

Across all of this work, our approach integrates vision, masterplanning and design guidance with a deep understanding of global trends, emerging technologies and economic markets, and the scale of change ahead.

New Towns can deliver far more than housing, they are an opportunity to reshape economies, unlock regional potential, and drive sustainable growth. By embedding clear economic visions and robust investment cases from the outset, we define not only the type and scale of growth being planned, but also the mechanisms and levers needed to deliver balanced, resilient communities.

Complementing market insight, our in-house place economics team ensures the long-term potential of New Towns is fully understood, particularly their role in shaping new markets and driving new forms of growth. We help clients make confident decisions on the long term opportunity, with a clear, evidence-based view of the future, grounded in how places and industries interact today.

With market-leading experience in place-based economics, our team develops investment cases, prospectuses, and funding bids that maximise the social and economic impact of new communities.

Our approach to new towns is rooted in applied healthy placemaking, inspired by the historic New Towns movement and reinforced by NHS England’s Healthy New Towns principles. We apply these across our projects – designing walkable neighbourhoods, supporting health in homes and public spaces, and fostering active lifestyles and social connection – so new communities become places that actively support healthier, more connected lives. This is exemplified at Barton Park, where we pioneered a new approach to addressing the twin challenges of housing delivery and health.

With health now central to national policy, as seen in the government’s Fit for the Future plan, we are committed to making healthy placemaking a guiding principle for the next generation of new towns – ensuring they are truly fit for the future.

This is a moment of real potential. The government’s renewed focus on new towns offers the chance not only to build more homes, but to create better lives. Prior + Partners stands ready to work with government, local authorities, communities and the private sector to seize this opportunity – delivering new places that are affordable, well-connected, healthy, resilient, and rooted in local identity.

To learn more about Prior + Partners’ expertise in New Towns and how we can support your endeavors as part of this national agenda, please contact: newbusiness@priorparners.com