Building a future

As two of Scotland’s former new towns – Glenrothes and East Kilbride – prepare for their 70th anniversaries next year, we should welcome Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson’s new ideas for another set of developments for the 21st century (your report, 1 September).

On the face of it this seems to represent a major change in her party’s approach to planning. Her remarks are not far removed from those of the great post-war minister Lewis Silkin’s vision. He felt the new towns should not simply be a great task in physical construction – they had an important role in helping build new communities and social provision. In fact, the new towns over the decades became growth points for various regions as well as helping to address an acute problem in terms of both the number of houses and their quality. Today the new towns face a host of challenges in a digital age when many of thehelped them flourish are long gone.

Therein lies the challenge for Ms Davidson and her proposals. The existing former new towns badly need a fresh injection of public and private investment. The ones that she would like to see created cannot be built on the basis of simply trying to solve an acute shortage of homes for firsttime buyers. The new developments will need high quality jobs, tourist facilities, design and landscaping, and leisure provision on a large scale. This may not require the big government of which many of her followers are suspicious. It will require a respect for the role of the state and local government in helping to stimulate, and work with, private enterprise and development. But she needs to show the same enthusiasm for revitalising the existing towns as she does for creating the communities of the future.

BOB TAYLOR Shiel Court, Glenrothes