Labour will build swathe of Milton Keynes-style towns

ANGELA RAYNER will pledge today that Labour will create a new generation of Milton Keynes-style new towns to help meet its target to build 1.5 million homes.

Labour’s deputy leader will say that, under her party’s plans, the new urban areas will have tree-lined streets, nice parks, beautiful buildings and will have to consist of at least 40 per cent “affordable” properties.

The new towns will provide “swathes” of houses and will help “turbo-charge growth”, she will say, speaking at the UK Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum, a property industry conference.

She will point to Labour’s record in government after the Second World War, saying the “foundations of our past” are the inspiration for the proposals. Ms Rayner, who is also shadow housing secretary, will pledge to back “developers who deliver”.

She will say: “Labour’s new towns are just one part of our ambitious housebuilding agenda which will see swathes of good quality, affordable houses built in the national interest. Developers who deliver on their obligations to build high quality, well designed and sustainable affordable housing, with green spaces and transport links and schools and GPS surgeries nearby, will experience a new dawn under Labour.

“But those who have wriggled out of their responsibilities for too long will be robustly held to account.

“Labour’s towns of the future will be built on the foundations of our past. The post-war period taught us that when the government plays a strategic role in housebuilding, we can turbo-charge growth to the benefit of working people across Britain. That is what Labour’s plans will achieve.”

Labour kickstarted the era of new towns in 1946, a year after the end of the Second World War, when Stevenage was chosen for reconstruction. Over the coming years, an original small village was surrounded by thousands of homes. Its population is now 90,000.

Clement Attlee’s government also sanctioned other new towns, including Crawley, Hemel Hempstead, Harlow, Basildon and Corby.

The most famous new town of them all – Milton Keynes – was begun in 1967, by the Labour government of Harold Wilson.