British New Town Development

TiHE building of New Towns in Britain came in the wake of the astonishing Labor party victory immediately after World War II. Adoption of the policy marked the culmination of many trends: the perennial dissatisfaction with the disorder, congestion, dirt, slums, and dangers of overcrowded cities; the urge to guide urban growth and to replace a negative drift with a daring constructive policy; the concern over the loss of good agricultural land to housing, commercial, and industrial development; the discontent with the dreary housing estates built before the war, housing unrelated to employment centers or community facilities; and the impatience with the single-minded Trading Estates policy that encouraged industries in depressed economic areas but slighted housing and community facilities, and also industrial development in other areas. The now famous Barlow, Scott, and Uthwatt reports focused attention on these issues and some of the policy proposals. Wartime destruction and suffering heightened the popular interest. The Great London plans fired the debates and gave rise to high expectations; they also sparked the legislation by calling for seven to ten New Towns in the London region. Later housing and reconstruction crises helped to overwhelm the prestige of Churchill's wartime leadership; and New Towns, an idea sponsored by the dissident housers and planners of the country, provided a novel, attractive policy for the Labor party suddenly catapulted into control of the government. But postwar economic difficulties, the weakened condition of the British economy, depleted resources, the dollar gap, labor and materials shortages, and the general austerity policy slowed the tempo. The New Towns Act and the Reith reports, which laid the foundations for the legislation, were prepared with great haste because of the prospects of prompt government backing.1 With delay unavoidable, more thorough evaluation is appropriate. Limited though the present experience may be, it provides an inkling of obstacles and possible needed readjustments

Business · Environmental planning · Geography · Political science · Regional science · Strengths and weaknesses · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Psychology · Public Administration · Urbanization and City Planning