CIH response to the inquiry into Building New Towns: Creating Communities

CIH welcomes the ongoing inquiry into new towns. Our evidence into the first inquiry module highlighted the opportunities and challenges for the practical delivery of new towns. This response outlines a focus on creating communities, which is a core value at CIH, where we support housing professionals to create a future in which everyone has a place to call home.

Housing plays a vital role in creating inclusive, healthy, and successful communities. Our members work across the housing sector to deliver this day-to-day for their residents. We have powerful examples of where this occurs in existing communities, such as in the cost of living crisis and through new developments, and would be happy to facilitate further discussion or introductions with the committee if helpful.

The commitment to building new towns is a welcome and positive step toward boosting housing delivery in England. CIH welcomed the report from the New Towns Taskforce in September 2025, as well as the government’s response, and look forward to seeing further updates as plans progress in local areas.

New towns provide an opportunity to significantly boost affordable housebuilding, which meets the needs of local and mixed communities in the long-term. We have a desperate need for more affordable housing in this country, yet housebuilding has failed to keep pace with demand for years. At the same time, home ownership and social renting have fallen, while private renting (generally less secure and more expensive) has increased. Homelessness is at record levels and one in five children are living in overcrowded, unaffordable or unsuitable homes.

All new plans for new towns must be aligned with the government’s upcoming long-term housing strategy, as well other related national strategies. On a local level, new towns must be clearly aligned with local plans, forthcoming supported housing strategies, and upcoming spatial development strategies, to ensure that developments are meeting local needs. It is also vital that this is clearly aligned with the government’s plans for devolution and local government reorganisation, to ensure there is a consistent, streamlined and clear approach for developing new communities that meet regional priorities.

CIH supports the TCPA’s ‘Healthy Homes Principles’, and advocate for these to be considered in the delivery of sustainable and healthy new towns. Health and housing intersect continuously, and it is vital that these overlaps are considered when planning for future communities. CIH’s health and housing campaign work and best practice examples highlight the positive impact that good quality housing can have for health and wellbeing outcomes. These include tackling fuel poverty, reducing hospital admissions, addressing mental health challenges, and providing specialist support for those who need it. CIH advocated for including healthy homes in the ongoing Planning and Infrastructure Bill, to ensure that this is at the heart of all future development.

A crucial element that must be considered in creating communities through new towns is the provision of specialist and supported housing. Supported housing has faced acute challenges in recent years, as highlighted in the National Housing Federation’s campaign ‘Save our Supported Housing’, which CIH supports. The evidence for including supported housing in mixed communities is clear, with outcomes of preventing and reducing homelessness, as well as relieving pressures and costs on health and social care services. Without an adequate supply of supported housing, and revenue funding to continue operating these services, many vulnerable people will lose the support they require. To ensure that new towns deliver healthy and successful outcomes for all ages, it is necessary that supported housing is included strategically in the vision from the outset, as well as consulting with local partners and housing providers to ensure best practice is carried out operationally in the long-term.

The homes delivered through new towns must meet local housing needs in order to be successful in their aims. In particular, social rented homes are the most truly affordable housing tenure, and provide opportunities for safe and secure housing for some of the most vulnerable groups in our society. We therefore endorse the New Towns Taskforce’s recommendation for 40 per cent affordable housing for each new town, to ensure that the homes delivered will meet local needs.

Another crucial element of healthy homes is accessibility. We previously welcomed the government’s commitment to mandate accessibility standards through the Building Regulations Part M4(2), as part of Homes Made for Everyone (HoME) coalition. This has also recently been raised by the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee. Accessibility standards are vital to ensure that new homes are available to everyone, as well as being fit for future generations.

The development of new towns provides a unique opportunity to promote genuine mixed-tenure communities, which will encourage social integration, build resilience, and reduce stigmas often associated with social housing. There are examples of both good and bad practices in this area, and it is vital that this is taken into consideration with strategic planning for the new town. Social housing residents often feel stigmatised through harmful stereotypes, which includes ‘geographical flags’ to identify social housing compared to other housing types or tenures. The vital work of Stop Social Housing Stigma outlines how housing providers can work to combat this, and it is important that new towns include this when planning the placement and integration new housing developments. 

New towns must ensure placemaking is at the heart of creating new, successful and sustainability communities. Good placemaking, or place-shaping, is strategic, holistic, and embeds inclusion and sustainability. Many across the housing sector have placemaking at their core, with the intention to help residents and communities thrive.

This may vary between urban expansions and new towns, i.e. between the growth of existing communities and the commencement of new communities, as it may involve different levels of engagement with local people, as well as ensuring integrated infrastructure, transport, and access to necessary social services.

We can learn lessons from previous new towns in order to achieve this. Milton Keynes is recognised for outcomes in health, economy and the environment, which can be used to emulate similar successes with future new towns. Some findings from previous new towns are outlined in the Bennett Institute for Public Policy’s report, which has three key findings: providing a range of social infrastructure from the outset, the need for cross-sector collaboration, and considering the long-term management of social infrastructure. The Institute for Public Policy Research also released a review of lessons that could be learnt from new towns and growth areas, including the need for mixed housing communities and a vision for the new communities.

Similar lessons can be learned from the past, beyond new towns. One example of this is Bournville in Birmingham, which was established with an emphasis on placemaking in 1878 for workers of Cadbury, and the wider community. The importance of internationality, healthy living and wellbeing was evident from the outset in developing the area, and this continues to be a lasting legacy for the current community. This shows the need to develop new areas with strategic plans for how new housing and infrastructure will contribute to health aims, and how this can be sustainable and maintained in the future by the Bournville Village Trust.

The role of design in placemaking is crucial in ensuring good quality homes are built to adequate safety, sustainability and accessibility principles. We would encourage the committee’s consideration of the responses from leading experts in this area, such as the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

It is vital that plans for housing and infrastructure are strategically connected to create healthy and sustainable communities. Integrated infrastructure planning is vital to ensure that housing delivery and community wellbeing are designed for early in the process. This includes access to green and blue spaces, as well as GPs, schools, transport, and local amenities.

We would encourage the inquiry to review the overarching vision and design principles for new towns. The Design Council has proposed the creation of Zero Carbon New Towns and an accompanying Zero Carbon New Towns Code, the guiding principles of which would be reducing car dependency, minimising the use of high carbon materials, prioritising biodiversity and ecological gain, and removing barriers to low-carbon building construction. The design of new towns should also consider sustainable approaches to water, sewerage, and drainage, maximising good air quality, and climate resilience, especially ensuring they are resilient to extreme heat, drought, and flood events. Taking this approach has clear links to improving health and wellbeing and will be important for ensuring that the construction of new towns do not risk jeopardising the UK’s legally binding carbon budgets.

We have the opportunity to create healthy and sustainable communities with the upcoming new towns, and to do this we must ensure we are developing homes and places that are fit for the future and resilient to a changing climate.

For more information on the inquiry visit parliament’s website.

For more information on our response please contact Megan Hinch, policy manager, megan.hinch@cih.org.