Britain faces an acute housing crisis. Housing is now the least affordable it has been for 148 years, since Victorian Britain. In contrast to what happened during the industrial revolution, employers today are blocked from hiring more due to a shortage of nearby new homes for workers. Investors are less likely to invest if firms cannot get the workers they need.
New homes must respond to the economic needs of the country. They must ultimately serve the Government's central mission of growth.
Living standards have been squeezed as the growth in rental costs has outstripped incomes.
Economic evidence shows that for new towns to be worthwhile, they need to be in or near existing high-wage opportunities.
Achieving the growth mission will involve allowing settlements that can generate more good jobs to build up and out – using underutilised bits of 'grey belt', doing more with brownfield, improving and making better use of land in underinvested council estates, and more.
One of the ways cities have built 'out' in the past is through masterplanned extensions. Edinburgh New Town, most of Bath, Newcastle's Grainger Town, and Pimlico were all built in this way.
Successful agglomerations such as Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Manchester need more transport infrastructure to allow them to realize the full benefits of their existing housing. Leeds's successful tech and finance industries will benefit if the long-overdue tram system is finally built. York could benefit from a 'New Town' in the form of an urban extension.