The TCPA welcomes reports published in the last week by the House of Lords Built Environment Select Committee following their inquiry into New Towns, and by the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee on their inquiry into Land Value Capture. The Association made written submissions and gave oral evidence to both inquiries, drawing on its knowledge of contemporary new communities and post-war New Towns.
New Towns
The TCPA’s written evidence and evidence in public to the House of Lords Built Environment Committee’s modular inquiry into New Towns stressed the need to use existing powers in the New Towns Act to assemble land and to retain land-value uplift for public benefit. This has been echoed by the Committee in its report, alongside calls to embed community ownership in long-term stewardship arrangements for New Towns. The TCPA also advocated for a ‘compelling, values-based national vision’ rooted in social purpose, which has yet to be articulated by Government, with this requirement endorsed by the committee.
The TCPA’s evidence also argued that there was ‘a consensus post-war that new towns were about creating new lives for people and transforming people’s lives, health and opportunity’. The Association also cited the importance of masterplanning, design codes, and community engagement from the outset, and the need to start with people and place rather than density and targets.
This view was also embraced by the committee, and the committee also supported the TCPA’s position that land-value capture and early public investment are necessary for viability; and that the up-front creation of community-owned institutions is vital in order for people to have access to their facilities from the start.
The TCPA welcomes the Committee’s report and Peers’ ambition to be a ‘critical friend’ to government as it embarks on its New Towns Programme.
Land Value Capture
The TCPA also provided written evidence and gave evidence in public to the Housing Communities and Local Government Committee’s inquiry into Land Value Capture and its role in supporting the delivery of 1.5 million homes.
The TCPA particularly welcomes the HCLG Committee’s recommendation to government that ‘There is significant potential to use land value capture as part of funding the proposed New Towns, especially on green field sites’ and reiterates concerns that without appropriate arrangements, including policy and legislation in place prior to the selection and designation of New Town locations, there are risks that could jeopardise their delivery.
The Committee urged the government to quickly make arrangements for the purchase of land on New Towns sites prior to announcing its final response to the Taskforce Report in Spring 2026. This reflects the emphasis the TCPA placed in its evidence on New Town Development Corporations as the only model for successfully capturing land value and delivering at pace.
Overall, the committee echoed the views of the TCPA that the current system of Community Infrastructure Levy and Section 106, which are used to capture Land Value, underperform, in part due to local authority resourcing, but as most witnesses agreed, incremental rather than wholesale change is what is required. More recently the TCPA also published Development taxes and levies: lessons from the past, ideas for the future reflecting on the wider issues together with the University of Cambridge’s Department of Land Economy.
There is much to welcome in the Select Committee’s report, including strong directions for Government to immediately publish its delayed long-term housing strategy; to encourage local plans to do more on affordable housing and to work closely with the Mayor to ensure that Affordable Housing Delivery in London does not suffer as a result of recent policy changes; and to prioritise New Town Development Corporations in the Autumn budget. The TCPA looks forward to government responses to these reports in due course.
To read more about the TCPA’s current work on New Towns, see here.
