12 new UK towns with 10,000 homes to be built across Britain

Plans for a new generation of "new towns" will be unveiled on Sunday in the latest effort to tackle Britain's housing crisis. Twelve locations have been identified and construction will start on three before the next election. Each new town will have at least 10,000 new homes.

It is promised the new developments will have "first-class local GP surgeries, schools, green spaces and transport links". The first three "towns" are expected to be a new settlement in Tempsford, Bedfordshire, in the "heart of the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor; an "expanded development" bringing together Enfield's Chase Park and Crews Hill to address "London's acute housing need"; and new housing in Leeds in the city's South Bank.

The Government is taking inspiration from the "transformative post-war housing boom under Labour prime minister Clement Attlee". It is hoped the initiative will deliver up to 300,000 homes in the decades ahead.

New development corporations are expected to deliver the projects. These may have special planning powers to "compulsory purchase land, invest in local GPs and schools, and grant planning permission".

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: "For so many families, homeownership is a distant dream. My Labour Government will sweep aside the blockers to get homes built, building the next generation of new towns.

"This is national renewal in action, building Britain's future and giving the key to home ownership to young families across the country as part of the plan for change."

Housing Secretary Steve Reed will deliver the message: "Build, baby, build." He will pledge to "do whatever it takes to get Britain building".

Mr Reed - who has taken on the role following the resignation of former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner - will boast: "This party built new towns after the war to meet our promise of homes fit for heroes. Now, with the worst economic inheritance since that war, we will once again build cutting-edge communities to provide homes fit for families of all shapes and sizes.

"I am launching the next generation of new towns taking the lessons from the post-war Labour government housing boom, mobilising the full power of the state to build a new generation of new towns and restore the dream of home ownership to thousands of families across the country."

The other building locations recommended by the New Towns Taskforce include a standalone settlement in Adlington, Cheshire East; a development in South Gloucestershire, across Brabazon and the "West Innovation Arc"; redevelopment of the former airbase at Heyford Park in Cherwell with connections to Oxford; an inner-city project in Manchester, Victoria North; a new settlement in the Marlcombe, East Devon; a "renewed town" in Milton Keynes; new construction in Plymouth; a riverside settlement in Thamesmead, Greenwich; and building at Worcestershire Parkway, Wychavon.

Shadow Housing Secretary Sir James Cleverly said: "This announcement is yet more over-promising from a Labour Government that's already failing on housing. They talk about a new generation of towns, but they can't even get building in our capital, with housing starts in Labour-run London now at their lowest level since 2009 - and across the country their targets are simply not being met."