The New Towns Taskforce’s final report was recently published, detailing the locations of the next generation of towns. This marks a crucial step forward in tackling the UK’s housing crisis, but for these projects to succeed, there must be a shift in perspective from viewing them as a solution to the UK’s housing shortage, to engines of economic growth in their own right.

New towns do more than just increase housing stock. The UK’s housing crisis is more widely felt than many realise, with the housing shortage linked to reduced labour mobility, poorer public health, and delayed family formation. Through the successful delivery of new towns, the UK can unlock economic growth that has been held back by a chronic housing shortage. These new developments are fantastic investment opportunities, stimulating job creation and ultimately boosting regional productivity. They even have the potential to revitalise existing areas in need of resource injection.

In the past, there has been community resistance to new towns, even in the face of the new investment they bring. A lot of this relates to the project delivery. Often when new towns are built infrastructure does not arrive when it’s needed, meaning local residents cannot get a GP appointment or places at schools, or that roads become congested. Better integrated delivery of infrastructure can mitigate this – and help the community to realise the ways that new towns benefit them.

There are two keys things that need to change for this to happen. Currently, infrastructure tends to be designed by a completely different team to the place itself – often leading to a lack of understanding for its true purpose. This means better identifying what infrastructure is required to support each new town, what infrastructure is already in progress, and where the gaps are. Cohesive planning and integrated working are needed to deliver new towns in a way that ensures the local community is not affected by lack of infrastructural capacity.

Secondly, a skilled pipeline of professionals must be built to carry out this undertaking. As it stands, the UK has a skills shortage that is exacerbating common problems with the delivery of new towns. This must change if we are to deliver the government’s vision for a new generation of towns.

One size does not fit all for the development of the proposed towns. Community involvement and consultation will be key to delivering developments that benefit everyone, including local people. Each area has a unique culture, local economy, and set of challenges that should be considered. This highly skilled planning work creates part of the demand for a pipeline of professionals, who will ensure that new towns can be a win-win for everyone they affect.

A Home Builders Federation report says that 82% of local authorities struggle to hire town planners. They also find that there are billions of pounds of developer contributions left unspent across the UK. Local authorities simply don’t have the resource to allocate and monitor these funds, leaving their potential unused.

To address this systemic issue of underemployment, developing a pipeline of skilled professionals must start early. Currently, the private sector is beating the public sector at talent recruitment, offering more favourable salaries and job perks. Technical academies, apprenticeship programmes, and career programmes need founding – and could even provide part of a solution to youth unemployment. New programs are the first step in modernising the public sector’s approach to recruitment to build the pool of talent we need to make new towns a success.

The proposed new towns represent a generational opportunity to transform the housing landscape of Britain. They have the potential to revitalise existing towns, and become economic powerhouses in their own right. But without the right skills, professionals, and approach, we’ll simply end up recreating the housing problems we’re trying to solve. With the community voice at the centre, it’s time for Britain to refocus our efforts on our capacity to deliver new towns.