Solving the housing crisis has proved to be one of the most difficult challenges of our generation.
But while successive governments have failed to tackle the problem, the solution has been in our hands all along, argue Katy Lock, TCPA director of communities, and Dr Hugh Ellis, TCPA director of policy, in their new book New Towns: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth.
The solution lies in the rich legacy of our new towns – in what they can teach us about how to secure the highly sustainable and affordable places we so desperately need.
One of the most extraordinary and misunderstood programmes of urban development in UK history, these 32 new towns built after the New Towns Act of 1946 brought the promise of a new beginning for millions of people across the country.
The book, the second in a series on new communities, examines the motivations, execution and successes of the new towns project, and the vital lessons that should be learnt from them, that could transform the quality of what we build now.
The authors position the principle of these new settlements not simply as part of the solution to the housing crisis, but as an example of the extraordinary things that can be achieved by having a national vision for decent homes and the right kind of public bodies to deliver them.
At a time where the government has yet to make much tangible progress to solve the housing crisis, this is a milestone book with a critical lesson for our future.
Available now from RIBA Books online or at RIBA Bookshops.