Four locations for new towns across Yorkshire identified to help Labour hit housing target
The locations for four new towns across Yorkshire have been pitched to Government as part of its drive to build 1.5 million homes by the end of the Parliament.
To hit this target, Labour has said it built the first new towns in a generation, having set up a taskforce to decide on areas.
It is currently scoping locations and will submit a shortlist to Housing Secretary Angela Rayner before July.
Two think tanks have put together reports on the ideal places for new towns, with four areas across Yorkshire identified.
UK Day One has recommended developments around the village of Poppleton, on the outskirts of York, as well as building houses around the proposed tram system between Leeds and Bradford.
Britain Remade also identified Poppleton and suggested making the most of the Sheffield Supertram stations to the south of the city, which are surrounded by fields.
The thinktank also pitched creating a new town around Weeton, in North Yorkshire, which sits on the railway line between Harrogate and Leeds and is nearby the beautiful Almscliffe Crag.
Kane Emerson, author of the report, told The Yorkshire Post of UK Day One’s thinking behind the locations.
“It was a bit of work that we had been doing to nudge the Government to think about the importance of location,” he said.
“There have been quite a few historic examples of new town failures, where they put new towns in remote areas.
“So this report was really to nudge them in the direction that they should be putting any new towns where there are existing transport links, or doing them as extensions to accessible cities like York or Leeds.
“In York, housing demand is so high that there are very few cheap or affordable areas of York. So really, what you need to do with York is build more homes to meet the demand.”
He highlighted Poppleton as an area that has rail connections into York city centre, is close to a motorway and also accessible by bike.
Whereas in West Yorkshire, Mr Emerson said that any housing should be focused around stations for the prospective tramline between Leeds and Bradford.
He added: “We really need to focus on areas where growth is constrained by housing.
“We need to think about where workers find housing costs a big barrier to be able to live.”
There are probably two different strategies for Leeds and York. Leeds and York are very different.
York Outer MP Luke Charters told The Yorkshire Post that he was not aware of any plans for a new town in Poppleton, but revealed he would support garden village proposals to build 7,000 homes in Elvington and Clifton Gate in the city’s local plan.
The Labour MP said: “I’m a huge believer in garden villages. I think they can reach a criticality of infrastructure where you have a primary school, a shop or a dental surgery.
“They will bring in sustainable travel routes, which will allow people to cycle to their jobs in the centre of town. We could be a leader for garden villages in York.”
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) spokesperson said: “Our new towns programme is the largest housebuilding programme since the Second World War and will help us restore the dream of homeownership for families across the country.
“The New Towns Taskforce will make its recommendations on locations later this year, and this will support us in our ambition to deliver hundreds of thousands of affordable and high-quality homes.”