The new towns in the United Kingdom were planned under the powers of the New Towns Act 1946 (9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 68) and later acts to relocate people from poor or bombed-out housing following World War II. Designated new towns were placed under the supervision of a development corporation, and were developed in three waves. Later developments included the "expanded towns": existing towns which were substantially expanded to accommodate what was called the "overspill" population from densely populated areas of deprivation.
Historical precedents
Garden cities
The concept of the "garden city" was first envisaged by Ebenezer Howard in his 1898 book To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, as an alternative to the pollution and overcrowding in Britain's growing urban areas. Taking inspiration from the model villages of Port Sunlight and Bournville, he saw garden cities as the "joyous union" of town and country, providing a much better quality of life for those who lived there.
Two garden cities were built, both in Hertfordshire Letchworth, founded in 1903, and Welwyn Garden City, founded in 1920.
The underlying principles of garden cities (including community engagement, well designed housing, easily accessible recreational and shopping facilities, and an integrated transport network) were influential in the development of the post-war new towns movement.
Overspill estates
An "overspill estate" is a housing estate planned and built for the housing of excess population in urban areas, both from the natural increase of population and often in order to rehouse people from decaying inner city areas, usually as part of the process of slum clearance. They were created on the outskirts of most large British towns and during most of the 20th century, with new towns being an alternative approach outside London after World War II. The objective of this was to bring more economic activity to these smaller communities, whilst relieving pressure on overpopulated areas of major cities. London County Council built housing developments affixed to towns outside its jurisdiction, of which Becontree, Dagenham (which became part of Greater London in 1965) was the largest. It was built in the 1920s and 1930s. Seacroft in Leeds was built from 1934 when Leeds City Council bought 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) for municipal housing. Most houses and blocks of flats were built after World War II. The council had planned for Seacroft to be a "satellite town within the city boundary" Wythenshawe was built on former rural land in the north of Cheshire between the 1920s and early 1970s to rehouse families from the inner city slums of Manchester as an overspill estate. Other Manchester overspill estates include Hattersley (mostly built during the 1960s), Gamesley, and Haughton Green. Castlemilk, Drumchapel, Easterhouse and Pollok in Glasgow. Castle Vale in Birmingham, which was built in the 1960s in the extreme north-east of the city.
List of new towns
England
First wave
The first wave of independent new towns was intended to help alleviate the housing shortages following the Second World War, beyond the green belt around London. Two sites in County Durham were also designated. These designations were made under the New Towns Act 1946 (9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 68). Stevenage, Hertfordshire (designated 11 November 1946) Crawley, Sussex (designated 9 January 1947) Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire (designated 4 February 1947) Harlow, Essex (designated 25 March 1947) Newton Aycliffe, County Durham (designated 19 April 1947 as Aycliffe New Town) Peterlee, County Durham (designated 10 March 1948, as Easington New Town) Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, Hertfordshire (both designated 20 May 1948) Basildon, Essex (designated 4 January 1949) Bracknell, Berkshire (designated 17 June 1949) Corby, Northamptonshire (designated 1 April 1950)
Second wave
The second wave (1961–1964) was likewise initiated to alleviate housing shortfalls. Two of the locations below (Redditch and Dawley New Townlater renamed Telford) are near the West Midlands conurbation and were designed for Birmingham and Wolverhampton overspill; another two (Runcorn and Skelmersdale) are near Merseyside and were intended as overspill for the city of Liverpool.
Skelmersdale, Lancashire (designated 9 October 1961) Dawley New Town, Shropshire (designated 16 January 1963) Redditch, Worcestershire (designated 10 April 1964) Runcorn, Cheshire (designated 10 April 1964) Washington, Tyne and Wear (designated 24 July 1964)
Third wave
The third wave of new towns (1967–1970) allowed for additional growth, chiefly further north from the previous London new towns, among them "Central Lancashire New Town" and Warrington. Dawley New Town was redesignated as Telford New Town, with a much larger area, as overspill for Birmingham and nearby towns including Wolverhampton. With a target population of 250,000 and a planning brief to become the first "new city", the largest of these was Milton Keynes at the northern edge of the South East, about halfway between Birmingham and London. In the East Midlands, the existing town of Northampton was expanded. The city of Peterborough was designated as a new town to accommodate overspill from London.
Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire (designated 23 January 1967) Peterborough, Cambridgeshire (designated 21 July 1967) Northampton, Northamptonshire (designated 14 February 1968) Warrington, Cheshire (designated 26 April 1968), resulting in the Birchwood development Telford, Shropshire (designated 29 November 1968) Central Lancashire New Town, Lancashire (designated 26 March 1970), which covered a conurbation focused on the towns of Preston, Chorley and Leyland, and expanded Clayton-le-Woods into a larger urban area with the Clayton Brook development. Its area also included what are today large towns or villages, albeit they were smaller at the time of the new town designation: Bamber Bridge, Coppull, Penwortham and Euxton. It was initially planned to adjoin these areas into one city, with the name Redrose suggested, but after years of dissatisfaction with its progress amongst locals and politicians, its Development Corporation was ultimately disbanded in 1985 by the Thatcher government. Central Lancashire was retrospectively described as "more akin to an Urban Development Corporation" and "never intended to be recognised as a new town in its own right".
Yate and South Woodham Ferrers Yate in Gloucestershire and South Woodham Ferrers in Essex were developed between the 1950s and 1970s, coinciding with the creation of the above new towns, and Yate pointedly marketed itself as a "new town" during the 1960s. However, they differ in that they were not commissioned by any of the New Town Acts.
21st century In September 2024, the new Labour government established a New Towns Taskforce to identify a new generation of new towns in England. A year later, the taskforce recommended 12 locations: Proposal Location Type Status Adlington Cheshire East Standalone Eliminated Brabazon South Gloucestershire Corridor Crews Hill and Chase Park Crews Hill, Enfield Expansion Priority Heyford Park RAF Upper Heyford, Cherwell, Oxfordshire Brownfield Eliminated Leeds South Bank Leeds Brownfield Priority Manchester Victoria North Manchester Brownfield Marlcombe East Devon Standalone Eliminated Milton Keynes Buckinghamshire Expansion Plymouth Devon Densification Eliminated Tempsford Bedfordshire Standalone Priority Thamesmead Southeast London Expansion Worcestershire Parkway Wychavon Expansion Eliminated
Tempsford, Leeds South Bank, and Crews Hill were identified by the government as the three locations where work was likely to commence first. In March 2026, the government announced that list was being reduced to seven, with Adlington, Heyford Park, Marlcombe, Plymouth and Wychavon being dropped from the list.
Wales Cwmbran, Torfaen (designated 4 November 1949) Newtown, Powys (designated 18 December 1967) Coedffranc (Currently expanding)
Llanharan and Oakdale, though not designated new towns, owe their expansion from small villages to being targeted for housing developments in the 21st Century.
Scotland Six new towns in Scotland were designated between 1947 and 1973, mostly for the overspill population of Glasgow.
East Kilbride (designated 6 May 1947) Glenrothes (designated 30 June 1948) Cumbernauld (designated 9 December 1955, extended 19 March 1973) Livingston (designated 16 April 1962) Irvine (designated 9 November 1966, and encompassing the existing settlement of Kilwinning) Stonehouse (designated 17 July 1973, de-designated in 1976 after fewer than 100 houses had been built)
Subsequent developments Blindwells: new settlement under construction between Tranent and Port Seton in East Lothian Chapelton of Elsick (in progress) Countesswells: partially constructed new settlement west of Aberdeen between Cults and Kingswells Dalgety Bay: a new town developed in the 1970s and 1980s in Fife Dargavel: new town being built on former BAE munitions works site adjacent to Bishopton in Renfrewshire Erskine and Inchinnan, new town developed in the 1970s and 1980s in Renfrewshire, initially by the Scottish Special Housing Association Ravenscraig: former steelworks site in North Lanarkshire (in progress) Shawfair: new settlement under construction in south-east Edinburgh spanning the City of Edinburgh Council and Midlothian Council administrative boundaries Tornagrain: a new town near Inverness (in progress) Tweedbank: village built in the 1970s on a greenfield site in the central Scottish Borders, initially by a government body, the Scottish Special Housing Association Winchburgh, West Lothian. Expansion from village to a new town.
Future developments Forestmill: new settlement proposed in Clackmannanshire in close proximity to the Fife Council administrative boundary Owenstown: new settlement proposed in the South Lanarkshire area to the south of Lanark
Northern Ireland The New Towns Act (Northern Ireland) 1965 gave the Minister of Development of the Government of Northern Ireland the power to designate an area as a new town, and to appoint a development commission. An order could be made to transfer municipal functions of all or part of any existing local authorities to the commission, which took the additional title of urban district council, although unelected. This was done in the case of Craigavon.
The New Towns Amendment Act 1968 was passed to enable the establishment of the Londonderry Development Commission to replace the County Borough and rural district of Londonderry, and implement the Londonderry Area Plan. On 3 April 1969, the development commission took over the municipal functions of the two councils, the area becoming Londonderry Urban District.
Craigavon (designated 26 July 1965) Antrim (designated 1966) Ballymena (designated 1967) Derry (designated 5 February 1969)
Map of designated new towns
The map below shows all new towns designated under the New Towns Act 1946 and its successors, plus the seven sites confirmed by the New Towns Taskforce in March 2026. Markers are colour-coded by designation wave (England), constituent country, or as proposed (grey), and clicking a marker opens that town's article.
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