Speeding up and streamlining the delivery of new homes and critical infrastructure is a central part of the government’s Manifesto commitment to deliver 1.5 million homes and its Plan for Change milestone (fast-tracking 150 planning decisions on major economic infrastructure projects). The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 (the Act)) is one prong. The New Towns Taskforce Report (the Report) is the other. The latter sets out where and how the next wave of new towns in England might come forward to unlock economic growth and contribute significantly to meeting housing demand in England.
Industry bodies have been waiting to see how the New Towns promise will feed through into delivery. The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), amongst many others, has been stressing prior to and since the election that modernised Development Corporations are the most effective way to deliver large-scale new communities. According to the TCPA, “The historical record is clear that the private sector alone cannot deliver at scale, because of the risks involved. For larger new settlements, New Town Development Corporations provide the right combination of powers, speed, and commitment to quality necessary for the long-term and complex process of co-ordinating and delivering a new community.”
GENERATIONS PAST
The greatest generation of Development Corporations (established under the New Towns Act 1946 (1946 Act)) helped deliver post-war regeneration on an unprecedented scale. These DCs hung around in large part and provided differing levels of stewardship and resource base for the new communities.
The modern vision for DC delivery has been punctuated with the UDCs of the 1980s and early 2000s (driven by time-limited mandates for area-regeneration through infrastructure investment and housing-led renewal).
Few plans survive contact with reality – Development Corporation delivery has faced several challenges in practice:
- lack of clarity about a workable delivery model (contributed to by the many forms of Development Corporation);
- time and resources needed to put their own strategic policies in place;
- difficulties securing land at appropriate values to meet their objectives; and
- lack of significant public and private investment;
- Given the conclusions in the Report, and the focus on DC-led delivery, getting the right delivery model for the next set of new communities is going to be critical.
NEXT GENERATION POWERS
Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025
The Government’s flagship Act contains powers, specific to Development Corporations, intended to:
- Provide more flexibility over the size, shape and type of areas they cover.
- Ensure they have due regard to sustainable development and climate change.
- Update and standardise the types of infrastructure they can deliver.
- Improve collaboration with local transport authorities, through a new duty to cooperate (and in some cases permit use of transport planning functions).
Most importantly, Development Corporations will also be able to pursue new greenfield developments to deliver large scale property development, in addition to powers of regeneration (the basis of their original conception). This is a fundamental change in the Development Corporation model and demonstrates the government’s expectation that these vehicles should play a critical role in housing and infrastructure delivery.
However, despite calls for consolidation, the Act has not sought to establish a preferred type of Development Corporation to deliver its goals. Instead, the various forms of Development Corporation remain (each of which is established under a different legislative framework). The government has expressed a desire to maintain flexibility here – but, as expressed by the TCPA, this perpetuates the current ambiguity about the most effective model for delivery.
New Towns Agenda
The Act comes shortly after The New Towns Taskforce published its Report identifying and recommending 12 potential locations for New Towns – explaining how a revitalised programme could help address the UK’s economic and housing delivery challenges.
The Report is clear that Development Corporations are ‘generally best placed to deliver New Towns’ – they sit at the heart of its vision for delivery. Development Corporations are seen as the most appropriate vehicles for acquiring land on the best possible terms, drawing together necessary design and commissioning skills, planning and ensuring the delivery of infrastructure and homes, and engaging effectively with residents and neighbours as well as local government.
However, as with the Act, it is not clear what type of Development Corporation model the Taskforce envisages driving this change. Is it Mayoral Development Corporations that will be best placed to usher in a new era a development (in a climate of perceived progressive devolution), or will a new era of Urban Development Corporations be the ones to carry the torch? Matthew Pennycook, in a written statement of 13 October 2025, confirmed that the government intends to assess the delivery vehicle options for each place, including consideration of central, mayoral and local development corporations, and the potential for public-private partnerships, ahead of a fuller response to the Report in the spring.
Planting the seed
There has been a positive response amongst industry bodies to the prospect of a revitalised vision of Development Corporations. A vehicle that once steered Britain through post-war re-development has been largely dormant over recent decades, however, the tides seem to be changing.
On a Mayoral level, there has been a sharp increase in interest in the Development Corporation model – with some of England’s most prominent metropolitan mayors proposing new vehicles at the end of 2025 (with one having already been established on 1 January 2026 (Oxford Street Development Corporation)). Our next blog will pick this up in detail.
One thing is clear, Development Corporations are back on the radar, and we will be keeping a close eye on progress in this area over the coming months.
