One of the Labour Party’s biggest pledges before the last General Election was to build 1.5 million new homes. In 2023 Sir Keir Starmer said his party was looking at delivering “the next generation of New Towns”. Since then we’ve had a taskforce narrow down potential locations. We’ve now had further refinement, narrowing down the list to seven areas to take forward. As top architects in London, we want to have a closer look here.

Locations

The New Towns taskforce chose an initial 12 locations in September 2025. These were areas they were recommending to further consider for development. Interestingly, they were all over England, including in Cheshire, London, Leeds, and Bedfordshire.

Since the first list of potential New Towns, there has been more work to decide which to bring forward. The list has now been narrowed down to seven. These include Leeds South Bank, Brabazon in Bristol, Victoria North in Manchester, Tempsford in Bedfordshire, and a site in Milton Keynes. Crucially, two projects in London are on the list too; Thamesmead and Crews Hill/Chase Park.

As top architects in London, we think it’s fantastic that the city could get two New Towns. Notably, the forecast is each of the developments could deliver 10,000 – 40,000 homes. This would mean a significant number of new homes for the capital if both projects move forward.

De-prioritised

Interestingly, the five schemes not to proceed aren’t completely dead. While confirming the seven projects to explore further, the housing department also said the other locations remain “credible development opportunities”. They could progress in the future. Another proposal for South Barking could also be on the cards at a later date.

What next?

The next stage of the project is to refine the list of locations even further to see which will proceed. The goal is to have a final list ready before the end of 2026. There will also be further environmental assessments.

Notably, the Government is pledging that three of the projects will begin before the next General Election. So, that gives us a rough timeline; the election must be before 2029.

Do you want to work with top architects in London?

We could have really exciting times ahead for the New Towns programme. It could deliver brand new settlements and expand existing ones. It will be interesting to see the designs for the homes in the future, as well as infrastructure plans and public space.

If you’re thinking about designing homes or larger housing developments, you can rely on Coffey Architects. We’re an award winning team with some of the most creative, passionate, and innovative people in our industry. Whatever you have in mind or challenges you face, we’ll help you to see your project through to completion.

So, if you want to work with exceptional architects in London, speak to us.