Sir Keir Starmer has announced plans for 12 new towns across the UK ahead of a tense party conference for the beleaguered Prime Minister as Reform continue to surge in the opinion polls.
The plans could deliver up to 300,000 new homes as the Prime Minister attempts to finally bring some good news to struggling families.
Among 12 sites which have been identified as areas for new towns, three have been described as the most promising.
The party is due to start work in Tempsford in Bedfordshire, Leeds South Bank in West Yorkshire and Crews Hill in Greater London before the next general election.
However locals in Tempsford claimed they had not been informed about the plans and said there is a lack of infrastructure in the village, including no phone signal, as well as regular flooding in the area, could present a problem for a huge development.
The Prime Minister told the Sunday Times the new towns were the ‘physical embodiment of national renewal’.
He added: ‘It speaks particularly to those people under the age of 40 who have been locked out of the dream of home ownership.
‘That means that people haven’t got their base camp; that security for them and their family, which speaks to a wider piece, which is this sort of disenchantment with politics: the sense that politics can’t deliver.’
Housing Secretary Steve Reed is set to announce the plans in a speech on the opening day of the Labour party conference.
Sir Keir Starmer has announced plans for 12 new towns across the UK which could lead to up to 300,000 houses
Each town will have at least 10,000 homes with at least 40 per cent affordable housing and half for social rent.
In total, 12 sites across Britain have been earmarked for the development of new towns.
Among the dozen locations are sites in Cheshire, Manchester, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Plymouth and London.
It could collectively result in 300,000 houses being built across England.
In its manifesto, Labour pledged to begin work on 1.5 million new homes over the course of the Parliament, to expand homeownership to more Britons.
In his speech, BBC News said the housing secretary will echo Donald Trump by pledging to ‘build baby build’, while ‘taking lessons from the post-war Labour government housing boom’.
Clement Attlee’s government in 1945 resulted in the biggest increase in housebuilding in the country’s history.
The announcement comes amid a crisis for Labour as Reform threatens a landslide in the next election.
Although Reform would be slightly short of an overall majority with 311 MPs, that would almost certainly see Nigel Farage become PM
On Friday a new megapoll showed Nigel Farage’s party would make the biggest surge in political history if an election was held now.
Although the party would be slightly short of an overall majority with 311 MPs, that would almost certainly see Mr Farage become PM.
Labour would lose more than 250 seats on its current tally – and the Tories would slump into fourth behind the Lib Dems, with just 45 MPs.
Labour’s conference in Liverpool begins on Sunday and Sir Keir said the battle against Reform UK and its ‘toxic’ politics were ‘the fight of our times’.
The Prime Minister told The Sunday Times: ‘I think we can pull this round.’
But in a plea for party unity, after speculation Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham could seek a return to Westminster to oust him, Sir Keir said: ‘It is the fight of our times and we’ve all got to be in it together.
‘We don’t have time for introspection, we don’t have time for navel-gazing.’
The Prime Minister hopes to use his party conference to unveil a series of eye-catching policies, including promises for the construction of new towns, with the aim of turning the tide for both Labour and his premiership.
Housing secretary Steve Reed is set to announce the plans at the Labour Party conference today
‘You’ll always get a bit of that at a Labour Party conference, but that is not going to solve the problems that face this country.’
However locals in some of the areas say they have been left in the dark over the plans to create entire towns on their doorstep.
One parish council chairman whose countryside village has been identified as a likely site for the construction of a new town said: ‘Nobody’s come to talk to us at all.’
The chairman of the parish council in Tempsford, which is home to 600 people and 300 houses, said residents have no idea what to expect or prepare for.
David Sutton said: ‘The biggest problem we’ve got at the moment is that even today, as an announcement’s being made, we’ve been given no idea whatsoever of the scale of what we’re being asked to live amongst.’
Earlier this year the Government confirmed plans to build a new train station at Tempsford to provide connections between the East Coast Main Line and East West Rail.
‘Nobody’s come to talk to us at all,’ Mr Sutton said. ‘Nobody’s given us any indication whether it’s the rumoured 10,000 houses from before, 20,000, 40,000 was heard a couple of years ago, and last year 125,000, so what is it?’
The 52-year-old said some residents are ‘a lot more anti’ the prospect of major building than he is, adding that he is ‘up for some sustainable development’ in the village which has ‘no phone signal, no shop, no gas, no schools, no nothing’.
The chairman of the parish council in Tempsford, which is home to 600 people and 300 houses, said residents have no idea what to expect or prepare for
‘There’s a reason there’s no other houses here at the moment, because we haven’t got anything,’ Mr Sutton explained.
‘We’ve got horrific flooding problems where every single year for the last 20 years people in our village have had sewage in their front rooms at Christmas.
‘We need some help before we need to be the ones helping everybody else out with somewhere to live.’
Mr Sutton, who is also the landlord of the village’s pub, said The Wheatsheaf is ‘the only business in the whole village that’s open every day of the week’.
Among the steps Labour plans to take to speed up housing development is a ‘new towns unit’, aimed at pumping both private and public cash into transport links, GP surgeries, schools and open green spaces in its new settlements.
Mr Sutton said: ‘Of course (the Government) will say that but will they?
‘If they’re not even talking to us at all, how can we be sure that when they’re promising they’re going to build stuff, how do we know they even know what we need?’
The parish councillor also said the green spaces that could be built upon, including Tempsford’s historic airfield, are important to residents.
The village of Tempsford in Bedfordshire where there are plans to build new homes increasing the population to 350,000
Adam Hart, whose great-grandfather flew from the secret wartime base RAF Tempsford, said losing the airfield would amount to ‘losing a unique piece of British history’.
The 25-year-old historian and author, who lives in west London, told PA: ‘Not only would it be a huge shame to lose what’s left of RAF Tempsford, it would also deprive my generation of the chance to learn about this incredible piece of history and the bravery of the men and women who served at Tempsford.
‘Disguised as a working farm, Tempsford was the airfield from which many of Britain’s bravest spies departed for their secret missions in Nazi-occupied Europe.
‘Having visited Tempsford and researched the airfield, it seems to have taken its secrecy so seriously that still today no one seems to know about it.
‘By building over the old runways and demolishing what’s left of the buildings, future generations will not have the chance to visit and learn and be less inclined to learn about something that no longer exists.
‘Losing RAF Tempsford is not just losing a unique piece of British history, I think it will also contribute to future generations increasingly not engaging with the Second World War, which in my opinion should be avoided at all costs, particularly with a war raging in Europe as we speak.
‘And I say all this as a young person paying extortionate rent who would benefit from building more houses.’
Work on 12 new towns will be taken forward, Housing Secretary Steve Reed is to announce, as recommended by a report from the Government’s New Towns Taskforce, published on Sunday morning.
Plans for Heyford Park in Oxfordshire, one of Britain’s proposed new towns, is set to be focused on net zero initiatives
The historic RAF Upper Heyford airfield will be turned into a ‘green corridor’ as part of the plans
Proposals for another of the new towns in Heyford Park near Bicester in Oxfordshire have been revealed.
The once proud site of the RAF Upper Heyford will be turned into an ultra-woke, net zero utopia.
The plans, unveiled by developer Dorchester Living, include 13,000 new homes four new primary schools, a secondary school and community centres.
Transport in the town is focused on cyclists and pedestrians in the ‘walkable neighbourhood’, with very few roads displayed in the mock-up images.
Some 5,000 new jobs will mostly be available for those in the green energy sector, focusing on ‘Cleantech and Low Carbon Industries’ alongside ‘knowledge based sectors’.
It plans to make Heyford Park the UK’s first energy surplus town with designs showing the area packed with wind turbines and solar panels.
The historic airfield will also become a ‘green corridor’ while other areas of the town will be given back to nature as part of rewilding efforts.
Paul Silver, CEO of Dorchester Living, said: ‘Being named one of the Government’s ‘New Towns’ is a transformative moment for Heyford Park and a major endorsement of everything we at Dorchester Living have built here so far.
‘Over the past decade we have worked closely with partners and the local community to regenerate the former RAF Upper Heyford into a thriving neighbourhood, preserving its heritage whilst delivering new homes, schools, green spaces and jobs all with the underlying objective of becoming the UK’s first energy surplus town.
‘This designation gives us the platform to accelerate our work, to deliver a fully integrated and sustainable community, future proofed with transport and energy systems, strong local services and opportunities for people to live, work and thrive.
‘As a ‘New Town’ we can solidify our plans to create a place where young families can put down roots, where businesses can grow and future generations can enjoy a high quality of life, now with the Government’s backing.’