New towns in the United Kingdom
Encyclopedia
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. Some earlier towns were developed as Garden Cities
Garden city movement
The garden city movement is a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities surrounded by "greenbelts" , containing proportionate areas of residences, industry and...

 or overspill estate
Overspill estate
An overspill estate is a housing estate planned and built for the rehousing of people from decaying inner city areas usually as part of the process of slum clearance....

s early in the twentieth century. The New Towns proper were planned to disperse population following the Second World War under the powers of the New Towns Act 1946
New Towns Act 1946
The New Towns Act 1946 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which allowed the government to designate areas as new towns, and passing development control functions to a Development Corporation. Several new towns were created in the years following its passing...

 and later acts. They were not in fact new, but developed around historic cores. Later developments included the Expanded Towns.

Designated new town
New town
A new town is a specific type of a planned community, or planned city, that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are uncommon in new...

s were removed from local-authority control and placed under the supervision of a Development Corporation
Development Corporation
In England and Wales, Development Corporations are bodies set up by the UK government and charged with the urban development of an area, outside the usual system of Town and Country Planning in the United Kingdom...

. The Corporations were later disbanded and their assets split between local authorities and, in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, the Commission for New Towns (now English Partnerships
English Partnerships
English Partnerships was the national regeneration agency for England, performing a similar role on a national level to that fulfilled by Regional Development Agencies on a regional level...

).

Garden cities

  • Letchworth
    Letchworth
    Letchworth Garden City, commonly known as Letchworth, is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. The town's name is taken from one of the three villages it surrounded - all of which featured in the Domesday Book. The land used was first purchased by Quakers who had intended to farm the...

    , Hertfordshire (founded in 1903 through the Garden city movement
    Garden city movement
    The garden city movement is a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities surrounded by "greenbelts" , containing proportionate areas of residences, industry and...

    ).
  • Welwyn Garden City
    Welwyn Garden City
    -Economy:Ever since its inception as garden city, Welwyn Garden City has attracted a strong commercial base with several designated employment areas. Among the companies trading in the town are:*Air Link Systems*Baxter*British Lead Mills*Carl Zeiss...

    , Hertfordshire (founded in 1920 through the Garden city movement).

Overspill estates

  • Out-county London County Council housing developments, of which Becontree
    Becontree
    Becontree is a place in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, east north-east of Charing Cross.-Becontree estate:The area was developed between 1921 and 1932 by the London County Council as a large council estate of 27,000 homes, intended as "homes for heroes" after World War I. With a...

     was the largest
  • Wythenshawe
    Wythenshawe
    Wythenshawe is a district in the south of the city of Manchester, England.Formerly part of the administrative county of Cheshire, in 1931 Wythenshawe was transferred to the City of Manchester, which had begun building a massive housing estate there in the 1920s to resolve the problem of its inner...

    , built on what used to be Cheshire land in the 1920s as a Manchester
    Manchester
    Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

     overspill estate
    Overspill estate
    An overspill estate is a housing estate planned and built for the rehousing of people from decaying inner city areas usually as part of the process of slum clearance....

     but was not completed until the early 1970s.
  • Various London overspill
    London overspill
    London overspill is the term given to the communities created - largely consisting of publicly provided housing - as a result of the Government policy of moving residents out of Greater London, England into other towns around the South East, East Anglia and beyond.-Policy development:The policy...

     estates
  • Castlemilk
    Castlemilk
    Castlemilk is a district of Glasgow, Scotland. It lies to the south of the city adjacent to Rutherglen, Croftfoot, Simshill and the separate village of Carmunnock...

    , Drumchapel
    Drumchapel
    Drumchapel , known to locals and residents as 'The Drum', is part of the city of Glasgow, Scotland, having been annexed from Dunbartonshire in 1938. It borders Bearsden to the east and Clydebank to the west . The area is bordered by Knightswood and Yoker in Glasgow. The name derives from the...

    , Easterhouse
    Easterhouse
    Easterhouse is a suburb about east of Glasgow city centre, Scotland. It was partially built on land gained from the county of Lanarkshire as part of a boundary expansion of Glasgow before the Second World War. Building began in the mid-1950s by the then local authority, Glasgow Corporation...

     and Pollok
    Pollok
    Pollok is a large district on the south-western side of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It was built to house families from the overcrowded inner city...

     in Glasgow

First wave

The first wave was intended to help alleviate the housing shortages following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, beyond the green belt around London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. A couple of sites in County Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

 were also designated. These designations were made under the New Towns Act 1946
New Towns Act 1946
The New Towns Act 1946 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which allowed the government to designate areas as new towns, and passing development control functions to a Development Corporation. Several new towns were created in the years following its passing...

.
  • Basildon
    Basildon
    Basildon is a town located in the Basildon District of the county of Essex, England.It lies east of Central London and south of the county town of Chelmsford...

    , Essex (designated 4 January 1949)
  • Bracknell
    Bracknell
    Bracknell is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It lies to the south-east of Reading, southwest of Windsor and west of central London...

    , Berkshire (designated 17 June 1949)
  • Corby
    Corby
    Corby Town is a town and borough located in the county of Northamptonshire. Corby Town is 23 miles north-east of the county town, Northampton. The borough had a population of 53,174 at the 2001 Census; the town on its own accounted for 49,222 of this figure...

    , Northamptonshire (designated 1 April 1950)
  • Crawley
    Crawley
    Crawley is a town and local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England. It is south of Charing Cross, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town of Chichester, covers an area of and had a population of 99,744 at the time of the 2001 Census.The area has...

    , Sussex (designated 9 January 1947)
  • Harlow
    Harlow
    Harlow is a new town and local government district in Essex, England. It is located in the west of the county and on the border with Hertfordshire, on the Stort Valley, The town is near the M11 motorway and forms part of the London commuter belt.The district has a current population of 78,889...

    , Essex (designated 25 March 1947)
  • Hemel Hempstead
    Hemel Hempstead
    Hemel Hempstead is a town in Hertfordshire in the East of England, to the north west of London and part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2001 Census was 81,143 ....

    , Hertfordshire (designated 4 February 1947)
  • Newton Aycliffe
    Newton Aycliffe
    Newton Aycliffe is a town in County Durham, England. Founded in 1947 under the New Towns Act of 1946, it is the oldest new town in the north of England.-Geography:...

    , County Durham (designated 19 April 1947 as Aycliffe New Town)
  • Peterlee
    Peterlee
    Peterlee is a new town in County Durham, England. Founded in 1948, Peterlee town originally mostly housed coal miners and their families.Peterlee has strong economic and community ties with Sunderland and Hartlepool.-Peterlee:...

    , County Durham (designated 10 March 1948, as Easington New Town)
  • Stevenage
    Stevenage
    Stevenage is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England. It is situated to the east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1, and is between Letchworth Garden City to the north, and Welwyn Garden City to the south....

    , Hertfordshire (designated 11 November 1946)
  • Welwyn Garden City
    Welwyn Garden City
    -Economy:Ever since its inception as garden city, Welwyn Garden City has attracted a strong commercial base with several designated employment areas. Among the companies trading in the town are:*Air Link Systems*Baxter*British Lead Mills*Carl Zeiss...

     and Hatfield
    Hatfield, Hertfordshire
    Hatfield is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England in the borough of Welwyn Hatfield. It has a population of 29,616, and is of Saxon origin. Hatfield House, the home of the Marquess of Salisbury, is the nucleus of the old town...

    , Hertfordshire (both designated 20 May 1948)

Second wave

The second wave (1961–64) was likewise initiated to help assuage housing shortfalls. Two of the locations below (Redditch and Dawley New Town—later renamed Telford
Telford
Telford is a large new town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, approximately east of Shrewsbury, and west of Birmingham...

) are situated near the West Midlands conurbation
West Midlands conurbation
The West Midlands conurbation is the name given to the large conurbation that includes the cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton and the large towns of Dudley, Walsall, West Bromwich, Solihull, Stourbridge, Halesowen in the English West Midlands....

; another two (Runcorn and Skelmersdale) are situated near Merseyside
Merseyside
Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...

.
  • Dawley New Town
    Telford
    Telford is a large new town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, approximately east of Shrewsbury, and west of Birmingham...

    , Shropshire (designated 16 January 1963)
  • Redditch
    Redditch
    Redditch is a town and local government district in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district had a population of 79,216 in 2005. In the 19th century it became the international centre for the needle and fishing tackle industry...

    , Worcestershire (designated 10 April 1964)
  • Runcorn
    Runcorn
    Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port within the borough of Halton in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. In 2009, its population was estimated to be 61,500. The town is on the southern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form Runcorn Gap. Directly to the north...

    , Cheshire (designated 10 April 1964)
  • Skelmersdale
    Skelmersdale
    Skelmersdale is a town in West Lancashire, England. It lies on high-ground on the River Tawd, to the west of Wigan, to the northeast of Liverpool, south-southwest of Preston. As of 2006, Skelmersdale had a population of 38,813, down from 41,000 in 2004. The town is known locally as Skem.The...

    , Lancashire (designated 9 October 1961)
  • Washington
    Washington, Tyne and Wear
    Washington is a town in the City of Sunderland in Tyne and Wear, England. Historically part of County Durham, it joined a new county in 1974 with the creation of Tyne and Wear...

    , Tyne and Wear (designated 24 July 1964)


Cramlington
Cramlington
Cramlington is a town and civil parish in the county of Northumberland, North East England, situated north of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. The town's name suggests a probable founding by the Danes or an Anglo-Saxon origin, the word "ton" meaning town. The population was estimated as 39,000 in...

 and Killingworth
Killingworth
Killingworth, formerly Killingworth Township, is a town north of Newcastle Upon Tyne, in North Tyneside, United Kingdom.Built as a planned town in the 1960s, most of Killingworth's residents commute to Newcastle, or the city's surrounding area. However, Killingworth itself has a sizeable...

 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
    Central Lancashire
    Central Lancashire is a designated new town in England. The designated area covers the towns of Preston, Leyland and Chorley...

    , Lancashire (designated 26 March 1970)
  • Milton Keynes
    Milton Keynes
    Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...

    , Buckinghamshire (designated 23 January 1967)
  • Northampton
    Northampton
    Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...

    , Northamptonshire (designated 14 February 1968)
  • Peterborough
    Peterborough
    Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...

    , Cambridgeshire (designated 21 July 1967)
  • Telford
    Telford
    Telford is a large new town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, approximately east of Shrewsbury, and west of Birmingham...

    , Shropshire (designated 29 November 1968)
  • Warrington
    Warrington
    Warrington is a town, borough and unitary authority area of Cheshire, England. It stands on the banks of the River Mersey, which is tidal to the west of the weir at Howley. It lies 16 miles east of Liverpool, 19 miles west of Manchester and 8 miles south of St Helens...

    , Cheshire (designated 26 April 1968)

Modern developments

No new towns have been formally designated since 1970, but several new towns (in the literal sense) have been founded:
  • Poundbury
    Poundbury
    Poundbury is an experimental new town or urban extension on the outskirts of Dorchester in the county of Dorset, England.The development is built on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. It is built according to the principles of Prince Charles...

    , Dorset
  • Cambourne
    Cambourne
    Cambourne is a new settlement and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England, in the district of South Cambridgeshire. It lies on the A428 road between Cambridge, 9 miles to the east, and St Neots and Bedford to the west. It comprises the three villages of Great Cambourne, Lower Cambourne and Upper...

    , Cambridgeshire
  • Ebbsfleet
    Ebbsfleet Valley
    Ebbsfleet Valley is a new town and redevelopment area in Kent, South East England; and part of the Thames Gateway. It is located south west of Gravesend.It is named after the valley of the Ebbsfleet River, which it straddles...

    , Kent
  • Wixams
    Wixams
    Wixams is a new town in Bedfordshire, England, which has been under construction since early 2007. It is expected to become the third largest settlement in the Borough of Bedford after Bedford itself and Kempston, and one of the largest new settlements founded in England since the British new towns...

    , Bedfordshire
  • Sherford
    Sherford
    Sherford is a new town to be built in Devon, England. Development on the site started in 2007 and initial infrastructure work started in 2008. Its first 300 dwellings will be built in 2009 and when finished it will have 5,500 dwellings...

    , Devon
  • Buckshaw Village
    Buckshaw Village
    Buckshaw Village is a new residential and industrial area between the towns of Chorley and Leyland in Lancashire, the original area of Buckshaw being part of Euxton...

    , Lancashire
  • Northstowe
    Northstowe
    Northstowe is a proposed new town of 9,500 houses in Cambridgeshire, UK. It is expected to be "an exemplar of sustainability in the use of renewable energy resources and reducing carbon emissions"...

    , Cambridgeshire (planned)
  • Ingleby Barwick, Stockton on Tees

Future developments

On 13 May 2007, Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...

, who was shortly to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...

, announced that he would designate ten new "eco-towns" to ease demand for low-cost housing. The towns, of approximately 20,000 population each—at least 5,000 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
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...

. Local councils will be invited to provide sites for the remaining four towns.

The Town and Country Planning Association
Town and Country Planning Association
The Town and Country Planning Association is England's oldest environmental charity. It was founded as the Garden Cities Association in 1899 by Ebenezer Howard, initially to promote the development of Garden Cities...

 (TCPA) is advising the Government on the criteria and best practice in developing the eco-towns by producing a series of "worksheets" for developers.

Wales

  • Cwmbran
    Cwmbran
    Cwmbrân is a new town in Wales. Today forming part of the county borough of Torfaen and lying within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, Cwmbrân was established in 1949 to provide new employment opportunities in the south eastern portion of the South Wales Coalfield. Cwmbrân means Crow...

     (designated 4 November 1949)
  • Newtown (designated 18 December 1967)

Scotland

  • Cumbernauld
    Cumbernauld
    Cumbernauld is a Scottish new town in North Lanarkshire. It was created in 1956 as a population overspill for Glasgow City. It is the eighth most populous settlement in Scotland and the largest in North Lanarkshire...

     (designated 9 December 1955, extended 19 March 1973)
  • East Kilbride
    East Kilbride
    East Kilbride is a large suburban town in the South Lanarkshire council area, in the West Central Lowlands of Scotland. Designated as Scotland's first new town in 1947, it forms part of the Greater Glasgow conurbation...

     (designated 6 May 1947)
  • Glenrothes
    Glenrothes
    Glenrothes is a large town situated in the heart of Fife, in east-central Scotland. It is located approximately from both Edinburgh, which lies to the south and Dundee to the north. The town had an estimated population of 38,750 in 2008, making Glenrothes the third largest settlement in Fife...

     (designated 30 June 1948)
  • Irvine (designated 9 November 1966)
  • Livingston
    Livingston, Scotland
    Livingston is a town in West Lothian, Scotland. It is the fourth post-WWII new town to be built in Scotland, designated in 1962. It is about 15 miles west of Edinburgh and 30 miles east of Glasgow, and is bordered by the towns of Broxburn to the northeast and Bathgate to the northwest.Livingston...

     (designated 16 April 1962)
  • Stonehouse
    Stonehouse, South Lanarkshire
    Stonehouse is a rural village in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is located on Avon Water in an area of natural beauty and historical interest, near to the Clyde Valley. It is also situated on the A71 trunk road between Edinburgh and Kilmarnock, close to the towns of Hamilton, Larkhall and...

     (designated 17 July 1973, never built)

Future developments

  • Ravenscraig
    Ravenscraig
    Ravenscraig is an area of land located in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. Ravenscraig was previously inhabited by steel industry workers, as it was formerly the site of Ravenscraig steelworks...

  • Tornagrain
    Tornagrain
    Tornagrain is a hamlet in the Scottish Highlands. Situated around 7 miles northeast of the city of Inverness, it falls within the Highland council area for local government purposes...

  • Owenstown
  • Durieshill
  • Shawfair
    Shawfair
    Shawfair is the name of a new town planned to be built on the site of the former Monktonhall Colliery in the south-east wedge of Edinburgh. The name is derived from a local farm steading of the same name....


Northern Ireland

The New Towns Act (Northern Ireland) 1965 gave the Minister of Development of the Government of Northern Ireland
Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland
The Executive Committee or the Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland was the government of Northern Ireland created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Generally known as either the Cabinet or the Government, the Executive Committee existed from 1922 to 1972...

 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
Urban district
In the England, Wales and Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected Urban District Council , which shared local government responsibilities with a county council....

 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
Derry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...

 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
    Craigavon
    Craigavon is a settlement in north County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It was a planned settlement that was begun in 1965 and named after Northern Ireland's first Prime Minister — James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon. It was intended to be a linear city incorporating Lurgan and Portadown, but this plan...

     (designated 26 July 1965)
  • Derry
    Derry
    Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...

    (designated 5 February 1969) (see above)
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