How to build the next generation of New Towns

With housing growth and a new generation of New Towns high on the national agenda, Henley Business School academics, Dr Emma Street and Victor Nicholls, were invited to take part in a conference in East Kilbride organised by the New Towns All Party Parliamentary Group on 17 November 2023.

Chaired by Dr Lisa Cameron, MP for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow, the New Towns APPG is gathering best practice to inform Government policy and share best practice on planning, delivering, and renewing New Towns.

Emma and Victor spoke about the lessons learned from their extensive research into Bracknell town centre’s regeneration, with a particular focus on strategic and operational themes ranging from political and corporate management, partnerships, and more practical matters such as public realm design and animating town centre spaces.

The conference was attended by politicians, senior managers, regeneration specialists, and academics. Town leaders from East Kilbride and Cumbernauld shared their regeneration plans and Emma and Victor were able to contribute to their ideas. Attendees heard about planned regeneration at other New Towns including Harlow and Warrington, as well as a new architectural history of the New Towns being produced by the University of Edinburgh.

The event follows on from Emma and Victor’s previous links with the APPG and a presentation to a New Towns conference at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris in April last year.

Download their research reports:

https://www.henley.ac.uk/resea...

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Image above (Left to right)

• Victor Nicholls, Lecturer in Development and Planning, HBS, UoR
• Dr Lisa Cameron MP, Member for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow, Chair of the New Towns All Party Parliamentary Group
• Dr Emma Street, Associate Professor of Urban Policy and Governance