Back in September 2025 twelve sites were named for a possible New Town of over 10,000 homes. On the list then was ‘Crews Hill and Chase Park’—a combined site which is still being examined as two separate sites as part of Enfield’s Local Plan.
Following a Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA) the list has now been whittled down to seven sites:
- Crews Hill and Chase Park, Enfield — up to 21,000 homes helping to meet London’s acute housing need
- Tempsford, Bedfordshire — up to 40,000 homes built around a new East West Rail station, linking residents to Cambridge, Oxford, London and Milton Keynes
- Leeds South Bank, West Yorkshire — up to 20,000 homes capitalising on the city’s economic momentum and the government’s £2.1 billion local transport investment
- Manchester Victoria North, Greater Manchester — at least 15,000 homes regenerating the heart of Greater Manchester, with a new Metrolink stop connecting residents to jobs across the city
- Thamesmead, Greenwich — up to 15,000 homes unlocking inaccessible riverside land in London, enabled by the planned Docklands Light Railway extension
- Brabazon and the West Innovation Arc, South Gloucestershire — up to 40,000 homes at the heart of a world-class research and advanced engineering economy
- Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire — building on its history as one of the original new towns, to take forward the ‘renewed town’ vision to expand the city by around 40,000 homes and reinvigorate the centre with a new local transport system, boosting connectivity in the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor
Read the Government announcement here.
Read the Enfield Dispatch coverage here.
Consultation
There will now be a consultation on the proposed sites and the SEA which will close on the Tuesday 19th May. The consultation invites views on:
- how the New Towns Draft Programme could operate the 7 proposed locations
- how new towns could be delivered and planned
- the proposed approach to design and planning policy
- the government’s offer to locations
It also invites views on a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) report which focuses on:
- local environmental constraints
- the cumulative effects of new towns development
- practical methods of mitigation and monitoring
Following this consultation and completion of the SEA and Habitats Regulation Assessments, the government intends to publish final proposals and confirm the New Towns locations later in summer 2026.