New Towns

Shaun Davies Excerpts

Thursday 15th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Shaun Davies (Telford) (Lab)]

It is a privilege to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Macclesfield (Tim Roca). Telford is a little further ahead than his and other proposed new towns, having been designated in the 1960s. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch (Katrina Murray) on securing the debate and on her powerful speech. Telford was in the second phase of new towns and learned from her community’s journey. It is a delight to see my hon. Friend the Housing Minister in his place. Unlike so many of his predecessors, he not only understands housing but has been in his position longer than a few minutes.

New towns such as Telford, Cwmbran and East Kilbride, and the hundreds of thousands of people who live there, are the physical embodiment of hope and opportunity. First made possible by the Attlee Government, new towns gave families like mine a chance for a new life. The increase in affordable, high-quality housing made home ownership and renting away from the big cities possible for people who had never dreamt that that could be their future or reality. It was life-changing not just for the newcomers, but for those who, like my family, were in the area before the new town designation. They saw opportunities for their children and grandchildren that they could not have dreamt of for themselves.

As the Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi), clearly outlined, these new new towns need to learn lessons from those that came before them. New towns are not only important as symbols of hope and aspiration; they are incredible achievements in their own right. Telford still grows at a rate unlike almost any other town in the country, with 1,800 new homes built last year alone. Despite being one of the biggest and most YIMBY towns in the country, Telford excels in access to nature. Thanks to the national authority, since its existence Telford has designated 10 local nature reserves covering 600 hectares, and has more than 300 protected green spaces and more Green Flag parks than ever before. These spaces are loved and cared for by volunteers, such as Richard Shaw of Rick’s Environmental, and thousands of street champions and countless friend groups that have love, passion and pride for their communities.

New towns were built on the principle that people do not just live in houses; they live in homes in communities, and they need schools, jobs, healthcare, transport and green spaces. The community of Telford is thriving thanks to the dedication of groups, such as Telford Community Support and Telford Crisis Support. New towns continue to offer unique opportunities. Thanks to good transport links, Telford has become a hub of industry and manufacturing in particular for the defence sector, with Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land manufacturing tanks and employing over 1,500 people, but there are also major centres for Kraft Heinz, Besblock, Bridge Cheese and more.

Telford, though a new town, also has a history. It has a claim, with Ironbridge and Coalbrookdale, to be the birthplace of the industrial revolution. I pay tribute to Marcus Keane of Telford Memories and Steve Bowers of Telford Ultimate Guide for the work they do in promoting Telford’s proud history and rich diversity. I also pay tribute to people like Dennis Athersmith of Dawley Memories, who celebrate what came before Telford’s designation.

But we do need more. We need the M54-M6 link road, which was proposed at the same time as Telford’s designation but has never come to fruition. It has thankfully been promised by this Government. The direct train link from Telford to London was scrapped under the last Conservative Government, but there are plans to reinstate it under this one. We need better buses. The town being designed for cars means that our bus transport system is limited, and perhaps we could dream of one day having a metro system.

For decades, Governments have failed to keep up with and support new towns. New towns have grown significantly above the regional and national averages. Particularly at times when the rest of the national economy has stalled, new towns have continued to power on, but that has resulted in new towns not getting their fair share of enablement funding.

I refer to what other hon. Members have said about housing. Houses, in particular those around south Telford, were built with a life expectancy of 30 or 40 years. Now, 60 years later, they need regeneration, but for the past 14 years we have not had an ambitious programme of estate renewal. I ask the Minister to consider what this Government can do on that. We have an ageing population, with those people who came to Telford 60 years ago now in their 70s, 80s and 90s. We have the fourth highest growth in the elderly population in England.

Today I welcome the renewed interest in new towns thanks to this Government’s agenda to build three new towns. I hope that the Minister and those new new towns will look to places such as Telford and other new towns for inspiration. But as Captain Matthew Webb, the first person to swim the English channel, said, “Nothing great is easy”. We must measure the new new towns not in 10 years, but in 50, 60 and 100 years, so that they can realise their potential. As the new towns are built, the Government should also turn to the former new towns, experienced towns and, in some cases, the new cities to understand how the mistakes that were made, frankly, around town centre positioning can be avoided, and to invest and back them.

I have three specific asks of my hon. Friend the Minister. First, the Government should ask each existing new town with a record of delivery what it needs to do to break through the Whitehall machine to reach its next phase of opportunity. If the Government have an ambition to get the economy growing and to build those houses—and I genuinely believe they do—why not look to those areas that have already been doing it for decades and give them the opportunity to contribute to that national mission?

Secondly, as I have already mentioned, the Government should learn from those new towns. In Telford, it was the council, not Homes England, that delivered new homes. It remodelled town centres and converted a shopping centre into a place where universities were springing up and people are now living, and that new town centre identity will be so important to Telford’s next story.

Thirdly, as the 1980s advert said, come to Telford. I would love to take the Minister on a tour of communities such as Lightmoor Bournville village, show him the history and beauty of the Ironbridge gorge, show him the future of Telford—whether that is the new theatre backed by Government funding or the new swimming pool in Dawley, home of the first person to swim the English channel—or take him to Southwater, our new town centre, where people like Dan Blasczyk have continued to campaign to turn that place from a shopping centre into a town centre. The Minister could see the amazing Anstice hall in Madeley, a former working men’s club that has now been regenerated with a fantastic all-female leadership team, as well as so much more.

If the Government back these new towns in the same way that Attlee and previous Labour Governments did, there is a moment in history for this Government and this Housing Minister, so that in 50, 60 and 70 years’ time, they can look back and see the legacy of this Government.