New town at Tempsford needs "strong central government leadership and adequate funding" warns House of Lords

A House of Lords report has highlighted the Tempsford area as a leading candidate for one of the Government’s next generation of new towns.

The Built Environment Committee’s report, New Towns: Laying the Foundations, published on October 25, states that 18 of the proposed new towns put forward to ministers are located along the Oxford–Cambridge railway line.

It identifies Tempsford as “one of the front-runners for designation as a new town” and notes that “the railway station and works at Tempsford alone could cost between £5.7 billion and £6.8 billion.”

The Lords insist that all new towns must follow an “infrastructure-first” model in which “transport, utilities, and social infrastructure such as schools, health facilities, shops and community spaces need to be in place from the very start.”

Last week, Mid Bedfordshire MP Richard Fuller met Anglian Water executives during the Conservative Party Conference, when the Tempsford new town proposal was discussed.

Speaking following the meeting Richard said: “This proposal will put significant pressure on water resources, as the new town would be built on or around a designated flood plain.

“Of particular relevance to us in North Bedfordshire is the recommendation that would give more flexibility to water companies for investing outside a five year plan.

“If we are to have infrastructure in place ahead of dropping 40,000 homes on the good people of Tempsford, organisations like Anglian Water need the ability to get going now.”

The House of Lords report also urges the Government to involve communities “early and meaningfully” to build trust before any sites are confirmed.

The report recommends that development corporations should be the “default delivery vehicle” for new towns, but that local authorities must have seats on their governing boards.

It further supports removing “hope value” from compulsory-purchase valuations, warning that including it “would pose a clear risk to the financial viability of new towns.”

Lord Gascoigne, chair of the Built Environment Committee said: “The Government’s new towns programme is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build genuinely affordable, high-quality homes and to create communities where people want to live.

“Public support is fundamental to the success of the programme.

“The Government needs to work hard, day in and day out, to articulate a clear and ambitious vision for its programme.

“A key element of this must be to inspire developers and planning authorities to use the new towns as a model for future development.

“But a vision alone will not be enough to get these new towns built - the Government needs to show that it has the grip necessary to drive the programme forward and make it happen.

“Now that the New Towns Taskforce has published its shortlist of locations for 12 new towns the Government needs to set out, in explicit terms, how it is planning to fund and deliver them.”

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