Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 13 October (HLWS946), what evidential basis or metric will be used to determine when a new town has spades in the ground.

On 28 September, the government published the New Towns Taskforce report as well as its initial response.

As set out in their report, the Taskforce have prioritised sites where housing can be delivered quickly to reflect the urgent need for housing and with high quality placemaking standards. New towns are necessarily long-term projects which should continue to grow over decades to come, but government is determined to begin work as soon as possible, with spades in the ground on at least three new towns in this Parliament.

The government takes on board the Taskforce’s recommendations to consider the interaction between new towns and housing targets ahead of its fuller response. We want to ensure that the right incentives are in place to support proactive local authorities to work with us to bring new towns forward.