New Towns Taskforce embed our policy principles

News

28 Sept

A major new report to the UK Government puts New Towns back in the spotlight - key to delivering 1.5 million homes and tackling regional inequalities. Crucially, it makes culture central to their success. That shift could transform how we plan and sustain places in the UK.

Too often, cultural infrastructure has been treated as an optional add-on in policy in the UK; the New Towns Taskforce instead positions culture, sport, and leisure as essential social infrastructure to be designed in from the start.

Culture Commons advanced this agenda alongside 30 partners through The Future of Cultural Devolution in the UK open policy development programme. Together, we have consistently argued for culture, creativity and heritage to be embedded in the frameworks shaping new communities.

What are New Towns?

New Towns are large-scale, planned communities designed to grow quickly with the homes, transport, services and social infrastructure people need. They are now central to government plans to deliver 1.5 million homes while addressing housing pressures, infrastructure gaps and regional inequalities.

What is the New Towns Taskforce?

The New Towns Taskforce is an independent expert group set up by government to advise on how New Towns should be planned, delivered and sustained. Its role is to shape the policy framework, guiding local authorities and developers to ensure new towns are not just about housing numbers but about creating thriving, inclusive places.

Why does culture matters for New Towns?

The New Towns Taskforce report underscores several important shifts in how the government can think about “placemaking”:

Culture, leisure and sport as social infrastructure: The report affirms that cultural and recreational facilities are not luxuries, but core components of healthy, thriving communities. They sit alongside schools, healthcare, and transport as the building blocks of civic life.
Community engagement and inclusive governance: From the earliest stages of planning, local people must be engaged in shaping the vision for their place. That includes community organisations, cultural practitioners, and freelancers - whose lived experience brings richness and authenticity.
Distinctive place identity: All New Towns should be rooted in local context, history, and people. A sense of identity and belonging cannot be imported; it must be grown with and through the community that settles.
Long-term stewardship: Places do not stop evolving when the initial development is complete. The Taskforce calls for sustainable stewardship models that safeguard cultural and social assets for the long haul.

Together, these ideas mark a step-change in policy. They move us towards a future where culture is not sidelined but is fully integrated into how we imagine, build, and sustain our towns.

Shared Principles

Throughout the report, there are striking parallels with the positions we have been advocating at Culture Commons:

We argued that culture and heritage must be treated as essential infrastructure; the Taskforce echoes this, calling for cultural and sporting infrastructure to be designed in from the outset.
We emphasised the importance of creative and cultural ecosystem plans to guide investment; the Taskforce supports this by recommending integrated infrastructure plans that include culture and community assets.
We called for decision-making that includes local voices - from residents to cultural freelancers; the Taskforce insists that planning processes must be transparent, inclusive, and rooted in community buy-in.
We highlighted the role of embedded, lived culture in strengthening place identity and civic pride; the Taskforce similarly insists that new towns must cultivate a distinctive sense of place, grounded in their communities.
We pressed for long-term stewardship and investment beyond the initial build; the Taskforce responds by advocating sustainable stewardship models for cultural and social assets.
Finally, we argued that culture must be woven into regional and spatial planning frameworks; the Taskforce aligns with this by calling for joined-up, strategic, regionally coordinated planning and investment.

This alignment shows just how far the conversation has moved in recent years. Culture is no longer being framed as a peripheral matter but instead as central to how we can deliver sustainable, inclusive, and thriving new communities.

Looking ahead

Over the coming months, Culture Commons will continue to push for culture, creativity, and heritage to be embedded in the policies and frameworks that shape New Towns and places across the UK. The Taskforce report is an important staging post, but the real test will be how its recommendations are implemented in practice by the UK Government from here.

We believe that cultural infrastructure is not only about buildings or facilities - it is about creating conditions for economic vitality, social cohesion, democratic renewal, and civic pride. That is why we will keep working alongside partners to ensure culture is recognised as core to placemaking, not a footnote in development policy.