International lessons on how to build flexible and adaptable new towns in England.
Cover image: “Part of William Mitchell’s vast concrete panels at Hockley Circus flyover in Birmingham (1968)” taken June 19, 2006. © C20 Society. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with permission.
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The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI)
The RTPI champions the power of planning to create prosperous places and vibrant communities. We have over 27,000 members in the private, public, academic and voluntary sectors. Using our expertise and research we bring evidence and thought leadership to shape planning policies and thinking, putting the profession at the heart of society's big debates. We set the standards of planning education and professional behaviour that give our members, wherever they work in the world, a unique ability to meet complex economic, social and environmental challenges. We are the only body in the United Kingdom that confers Chartered status to planners, the highest professional qualification, sought after by employers in both private and public sectors.
Report authors
This report was commissioned by the RTPI. It was authored by the Futureproof New Towns project team, which comprised:
- Professor John Sturzaker FRTPI, University of Hertfordshire;
- Professor Alex Lord, University of Liverpool;
- Dr Phil O’Brien, University of Glasgow;
- Associate Professor Susan Parham MRTPI, University of Hertfordshire; and
- Ellie Pritchard, University of Hertfordshire.
The RTPI Practice and Research and International teams provided input and edited the report. For correspondence please contact research@rtpi.org.uk.
Contents
Foreword and executive summary
- Introduction
- Case study: Almere
- Case study: Freiburg
- Case study: The Paris region
- Case study: Chandigarh
- Case study: Daybreak
- Case study: Curitiba
- Synthesis of cross-cutting findings from case studies
- Conclusion and recommendations
Foreword and executive summary
A new generation of new towns in England brings huge opportunities, but also risks
The publication of the New Town Taskforce’s Report to Government[1] in September 2025 may come to be seen as a pivotal moment in the history of planning in England. The Taskforce, set up by the UK Government in 2024 to advise on the creation of a new generation of new towns in England, proposed 12 new towns, and made 44 recommendations covering a wide range of issues.
The impact of these recommendations, and any developments that follow, could be huge - even if few of the sites recommended by the Taskforce would constitute genuinely new settlements.[*] Indeed, ministers have sought to invoke the transformative power of the UK’s post-war new towns programme. But this scale of ambition brings both huge risks and opportunities[2].
On one hand, a new generation of new towns could drive national renewal and growth through sustainable, attractive and just development. They could provide homes for thousands of people over many decades, just as the UK’s post-war new towns are currently home to around 2.8 million people[3].
On the other hand, if they are unsustainable, unpopular, or fail to meet expectations, new towns could bring significant environmental, economic, and social costs. The popular perception of planning, and the nation’s wider ability to imagine then bring into being better places, is also on the line.
Indeed, the post-war new towns are not without their critics or flaws. There is a popular perception that the post-war new towns were ‘frozen in time’, and that their plans embedded dated assumptions about how people would live, work, move around and play. As a result, they have failed to keep up with their populations’ changing needs.
Whether or not this critique is entirely fair, there is important work to do to ensure that the new generation of new towns does not befall this fate - perceived or actual.
That is what this report – as part of the Royal Town Planning Institute’s Futureproof New Towns project, focuses on. It aims to answer the question ‘how can decision makers ensure that the next wave of new towns in England are flexible and adaptable’?
This report – lessons on flexibility and adaptability from around the world
The last post-war English new towns was designated 1970, but around the world new settlements continue to be built, expanded or regenerated. This report draws on six international case studies of new towns which have adapted, to varying degrees of success, to the challenges facing them and their communities in the twenty first century.
Those case studies - Almere in the Netherlands, Freiburg in Germany, the Paris region in France, Chandigarh in India, Daybreak in Utah (USA) and Curitiba in Brazil - provide a rich repository of lessons, highlighting that planners and planning are key to delivering successful, flexible and adaptable new settlements. These cases provide powerful narratives and learning in their own rights, and can be read as standalone contributions.
The research is also clear that the UK absolutely has the capacity to deliver places like this, but to do so on a consistent basis policy makers must learn lessons from these international examples. Those lessons include the need for a consistency of approach to planning policy, a clear recognition of the importance of partnerships, the importance of using masterplanning to offer a clear but flexible vision, the benefits which can flow from strong community involvement, the importance of land assembly and capture of land value, the criticality of linking land-use and transport planning, and the benefits of diverse housing tenure and land use within new communities.
The report concludes with five high-level recommendations for policymakers. These are:
- Ensure that planning policy is consistent over time;
- Harness the path shaping powers of planning, but avoid path dependency;
- Go beyond the plan – the importance of ‘urban management’ and setting up partnerships for delivery;
- Transport and land use planning must be integrated; and
- Mixed land uses and tenures lead to better outcomes, and supporting community-led models of development can build support.
Seizing the moment
Both the risks and opportunities associated with delivering a new generation of new towns are profound. But if they are planned and built to be flexible, adaptable, sustainable, led-by communities and with a genuine focus on place making, they could be transformative - both for the lives of their residents and for the UK. The recommendations put forwards by this report aim to support this outcome.
Stepping back, the current policy ‘moment’ is important in another, perhaps less tangible, way. The sweeping, system-wide, but pragmatic findings of the New Towns Task Force, the rich and instructive stories that emerge from the case studies in this report, and the huge media interest in new towns all point to it. This is that the current moment provides a rare opportunity to revisit the fundamentals of what good planning looks like on a grand scale, and what is achievable with real imagination and ambition.
Dr Daniel Slade MRTPI, RTPI Head of Practice and Research.
1. Introduction
1.1 The need for futureproof new towns in England
In September 2024, in order to contribute to its ambitious target of building 1.5 million new homes in England over this parliament, the UK Government established the New Towns Taskforce, an independent panel to “support the next generation of new towns”. In its final report, published in late September 2025, the Taskforce sets out a strong rationale for new towns to make a significant contribution to “some of the most pressing challenges facing the country today”[4].
New communities with a distinct identity have particular benefits in addressing current policy challenges – they can be planned strategically, with infrastructure provided up front or alongside new housing and jobs provision. Public space and green or blue infrastructure can be woven into the design, and from the outset a mixed use approach can be implemented to make communities more resilient and adaptable to future challenges, including climate change.
The language has of course changed, but a recognition of the need for strong intervention and the benefits of new communities has been a feature of planning as it has developed as a profession and a discipline from the nineteenth century onwards. In the UK alone these include ‘model villages’ such as Port Sunlight and Bournville, through the garden cities inspired by the ideas of Ebenezer Howard, to the programme of new towns instituted following the Second World War.
This experimentation was replicated worldwide, and a recognition of the need to take urgent action to address contemporary problems is likewise not confined to the UK. In many parts of the world there is a shortage of good quality new homes built in the right places[5], and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme estimates that between 1.6 billion and 3 billion people lack adequate housing[6]. With this in mind, a parallel report to this one, Futureproof New Towns: Planning Global 4 – How to Build a New Generation of Flexible and Adaptable New Settlements Around the World, draws on the same case studies that are presented here to explore lessons on flexibility and adaptability for an international audience.
Both of these reports are part of the Futureproof New Towns research project, commissioned by the Royal Town Planning Institute. This project has drawn lessons from new towns around the world on how to ensure that the next generation in England and elsewhere are adaptable, flexible, and evolve over time to meet communities’ changing needs in an uncertain age.
1.2 Addressing the mixed reputation of the post-war new towns
The findings of these reports are important in part because of negative public perceptions of new towns, particularly those built in the post-war years in the UK. A great deal of valuable research has been undertaken into those new towns[7], and there is no doubt that they were a significant achievement in a time of great change. They transformed living standards, and more than 2.8 million people currently call them home. But they have, at best, a mixed reputation – an RTPI and YouGov survey published to accompany the interim report of this research found that the UK public most often associate negative terms with the post-war new towns – words such as ‘concrete’, ‘boring’, and ‘soulless’. The survey also found a troubling lack of confidence that the next generation of new towns will be any better in meeting the needs of today, or the future.
It is essential, then, that in order to make a major contributor to meeting housing need in a coherent, sustainable and well-planned way, as we know that new communities can, those responsible for delivering new communities in England are able to avoid the mistakes of the past and learn from what has been done elsewhere.
1.3 Lessons in flexibility and adaptability from around the world
This report sits alongside the work of the New Towns Taskforce, which has its own recommendations about what needs to be done, often drawing upon learning from the UK. To complement this, we have looked in-depth at six case studies from around the world.
Those case studies, discussed below, vary in size and scope, and reflect the recognition in the Task Force’s report that new towns, in today’s context, will not only be standalone green field developments, but will also include urban extensions and the large-scale redevelopment of inner urban areas.
Our six case studies are:
- Almere (Netherlands);
- Freiburg (Germany);
- The Paris region (France);
- Chandigarh (India);
- Daybreak (USA); and
- Curitiba (Brazil).
The case studies selected for analysis in this project were chosen to reflect some of the diversity in experience from around the world, and to represent different stages in the development cycle – some newer and some more well established.
We recognise that there are many other interesting case studies, and our selection of these six cases should not be taken as endorsement of the approach to planning used in each case. What the case studies do bring, however, is experience from what we might call more typical post-war ‘modernist’ new towns (Paris and Chandigarh), radical re-shaping of an existing, rapidly growth city (Curitiba) and modern new towns of varying scale, on greenfield, reclaimed and brownfield land (Freiburg, Almere and Daybreak). They are therefore of relevance to all forms of ‘new town’ at a range of scales.
1.4 A thematic approach
The diversity of these case studies means that it was very important, in order to be able to draw meaningful conclusions from our research, that we used a common set of themes to analyse them. Not all the following themes are as relevant for each case study, but all are explored in relation to several places. Our themes are:
New towns as sites of urban experimentation: For this theme we explored new towns as testbeds for design innovation and planning ideologies, and assessed the successes and consequences of experimental layouts, housing models, and mobility systems. We further examined how resilient the experiments had been over the longer term, and sought to identify lessons from these experiments to inform current design practice and policymaking.
The significance of social and cultural lived experience: Here we considered how residents experience and adapt to new towns, recognising how central the human factor is to successful placemaking. This included investigating how community identity and belonging is formed in new towns, and how resident perspectives critique or support dominant narratives associated with the new town. Specific aspects of lived experience we reflected upon including heritage conservation in the new town and the informal use of space, local adaptations, and evolution of public spaces.
New towns as political and ideological projects: New towns reflect the political and ideological contexts of their times (for example the post-war utopianism of the UK), so we sought to analyse the political motivations behind new town development, how new towns reflect the pursuit of creating ‘ideal spaces’, and how these imaginations shift through time. Included in this theme are factors such as the role of the state versus the private sector in new town delivery, how political changes play out in the urban environment or affect planning outcomes, and how the ideological roots of new towns impact their future.
The challenges and the limitations of modernist planning: This theme is particularly relevant for new towns developed during the middle years of the twentieth century including, the UK post-war new towns. Here we sought to identify spatial or design features grounded in modernist planning ideals, explore mismatches between planned use and present day use, and to identify resistance or reinterpretation of planned environments by local communities. Through these reflections we were able to consider how well new towns are able to adapt - something central to the next and final theme.
Functionality, adaptability, and the future of new towns: To allow us to move from the general to the specific, we have investigated how well new towns function economically, socially, and ecologically in the long-term and assessed their connectivity and integration with surrounding regions (for example in relation to jobs, transport and services). We have also considered their capacity for renewal, retrofitting and redesign, and how adaptable are they to rapid social, technological, or climate change.
To do this we have examined governance and maintenance models of new towns and examined whether towns remain aligned with their original purpose or have been redefined by residents. We have considered how sustainability in aspects such as housing, energy systems and food systems is acting as a foundation for long-term viability, and how successful any masterplanning approach has been.
To carry out our research, using these themes, we have undertaken interviews and site visits and drawn extensively on secondary data (such as reports and academic publications which discuss the case study new towns)[8].
Detailed reports on the case studies can be found in the following six chapters. We then look across the case studies for cross-cutting findings, identifying lessons related to all aspects of planning but specifically in relation to flexibility and adaptability.
9.8 References
[*] The New Towns Taskforce’s proposed locations generally focus on pre-existing settlements. It frames the use of new towns as a way to expand and unlock large-scale housing delivery in these locations, rather than as a way of building ‘standalone’ new settlements. One could therefore argue that many of the Taskforce’s 44 recommendations concern effective town planning in general as much as the delivery of new settlements. In response, this report focuses on case studies of international new towns which have seen significant development and change over time. The lessons from these new towns are relevant both to effective town planning, broadly defined, and the unique challenges and opportunities associated with them.
[1] New Towns Taskforce, ‘Report to government’, Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (2025) [accessed on 06/10/2025].
[2] Expert taskforce to be at the forefront of new towns vision – MHCLG in the Media
[3] https://www.tcpa.org.uk/areas-of-work/new-towns/
[4] New Towns Taskforce, ‘Report to government’, Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (2025) [accessed on 06/10/2025]
[5] UN-Habitat, ‘The first session of the open-ended Intergovernmental Expert Working Group on Adequate Housing for All’, United Nations (2024) [accessed on 16/07/2025]
[6] UN-Habitat, ‘State efforts to progressively realize adequate housing for all’, United Nations (2024) [accessed on 30/07/2025]
[7] For example:
- Anthony Alexander, Britain’s New Towns: Garden Cities to Sustainable Communities (Abingdon, Routledge, 2009);
- John Boughton, Municipal Dreams: The Rise and Fall of Council Housing (London, Verso, 2019);
- Jane Hobson, New Towns, the Modernist Planning Project and Social Justice (London, The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, University College London, 1999);
- Rosemary Wakeman, Practicing Utopia: An Intellectual History of the New Town Movement (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2016);
- Katy Lock and Hugh Ellis, New Towns: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth (London, RIBA Publishing, 2020)
[8] For example: Richard B. Peiser and Ann Forsyth (eds.), New Towns for the Twenty-First Century - A Guide to Planned Communities Worldwide, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press (2021).
[9] Ayşe Burcu Kısacık, ‘Level of participation in land development: The case of Almere, Netherlands’, Journal of Design for Resilience in Architecture and Planning, 5. Special Issue (2024): 101-117
[10] Almere Municipality, 'About Almere' [accessed 08/11/2025]
[11] Nobelhorst, ‘The Village of Almere’ [accessed 08/11/2025]
[12] Jan Eelco Jansma and Sigrid C.O. Wertheim-Heck, ‘Thoughts for urban food: A social practice perspective on urban planning for agriculture in Almere, the Netherlands’, Landscape and Urban Planning, 206 (2021), pp. 2-13.
[13] Anke Brons, Peter Oosterveer and Sigrid Wertheim-Heck, ‘In- and exclusion in urban food governance: exploring networks and power in the city of Almere’, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 24-6 (2022), pp. 777–793.
[14] Jing Zhou, ‘Urban Vitality in Dutch and Chinese New Towns: A comparative study between Almere and Tongzhou’, TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture, Urbanism department, (2012), pp. 15-385.
[15] Ayşe Burcu Kısacık, ‘Level of participation in land development: The case of Almere, Netherlands’, Journal of Design for Resilience in Architecture and Planning, 5. Special Issue (2024): 101-117
[16] Ayşe Burcu Kısacık, ‘Level of participation in land development: The case of Almere, Netherlands’, Journal of Design for Resilience in Architecture and Planning, 5. Special Issue (2024): 101-117
[17] Jan Eelco Jansma and Sigrid C.O. Wertheim-Heck, ‘Thoughts for urban food: A social practice perspective on urban planning for agriculture in Almere, the Netherlands’, Landscape and Urban Planning, 206 (2021), pp. 2-13.
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[20] Jan Eelco Jansma and Sigrid C.O. Wertheim-Heck, ‘Thoughts for urban food: A social practice perspective on urban planning for agriculture in Almere, the Netherlands’, Landscape and Urban Planning, 206 (2021), pp. 2-13.
[21] Jan Eelco Jansma and Sigrid C.O. Wertheim-Heck, ‘Thoughts for urban food: A social practice perspective on urban planning for agriculture in Almere, the Netherlands’, Landscape and Urban Planning, 206 (2021), pp. 2-13.
[22] Samuel Agyekum and Harrison Esam Awuh, ‘Striving for just sustainabilities in urban foodscape planning: the case of Almere city in the Netherlands’, Local Environment, 29.8 (2024), pp.1063-1084.
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[25] Jan Eelco Jansma and Sigrid C.O. Wertheim-Heck, ‘Thoughts for urban food: A social practice perspective on urban planning for agriculture in Almere, the Netherlands’, Landscape and Urban Planning, 206 (2021), pp. 2-13.
[26] Ayşe Burcu Kısacık, ‘Level of participation in land development: The case of Almere, Netherlands’, Journal of Design for Resilience in Architecture and Planning, 5. Special Issue (2024): 101-117
[27] Ayşe Burcu Kısacık, ‘Level of participation in land development: The case of Almere, Netherlands’, Journal of Design for Resilience in Architecture and Planning, 5. Special Issue (2024): 101-117
[28] Ayşe Burcu Kısacık, ‘Level of participation in land development: The case of Almere, Netherlands’, Journal of Design for Resilience in Architecture and Planning, 5. Special Issue (2024): 101-117
[29] Christian Jantzen and Mikael Vetner, ‘Re-inventing Città Ideale: Designing Urban Experiences in Almere’, paper delivered at conference, Aalborg University, (2008), pp. 1-24.
[30] Ayşe Burcu Kısacık, ‘Level of participation in land development: The case of Almere, Netherlands’, Journal of Design for Resilience in Architecture and Planning, 5. Special Issue (2024): 101-117
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[32] Daniël M. Bossuyt, ‘The value of self-build: understanding the aspirations and strategies of owner-builders in the Homeruskwartier, Almere’, Housing Studies, 36.5, (2020), pp. 696-713.
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[34] Daniël M. Bossuyt, ‘The value of self-build: understanding the aspirations and strategies of owner-builders in the Homeruskwartier, Almere’, Housing Studies, 36.5, (2020), pp. 696-713.
[35] Daniël M. Bossuyt, ‘The value of self-build: understanding the aspirations and strategies of owner-builders in the Homeruskwartier, Almere’, Housing Studies, 36.5, (2020), pp. 696-713.
[36] Daniël M. Bossuyt, ‘The value of self-build: understanding the aspirations and strategies of owner-builders in the Homeruskwartier, Almere’, Housing Studies, 36.5, (2020), pp. 696-713.
[37] Ayşe Burcu Kısacık, ‘Level of participation in land development: The case of Almere, Netherlands’, Journal of Design for Resilience in Architecture and Planning, 5. Special Issue (2024): 101-117
[38] Brons, Oosterveer and Wertheim-Heck, ‘In- and exclusion in urban food governance: exploring networks and power in the city of Almere’.
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[41] Christian Jantzen and Mikael Vetner, ‘Re-inventing Città Ideale: Designing Urban Experiences in Almere’, paper delivered at conference, Aalborg University, (2008), pp. 1-24.
[42] Christian Jantzen and Mikael Vetner, ‘Re-inventing Città Ideale: Designing Urban Experiences in Almere’, paper delivered at conference, Aalborg University, (2008), pp. 1-24.
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[62] James M. Rubenstein, ‘The French new towns’, (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019).
[63] Yonah Freemark, Justin Steil and Kathleen Thelen, ‘Varieties of urbanism: A comparative view of inequality and the dual dimensions of metropolitan fragmentation’. Politics & Society, 48:2 (2020), pp. 235-274.
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[69] James M. Rubenstein, ‘The French new towns’, (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019).
[70] James M. Rubenstein, ‘The French new towns’, (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019).
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[77] Caroline Gallez, ‘Territorial Development Contracts in the ‘Grand Paris’ project: towards a negotiated networked development’. Town Planning Review, 85:2 (2014), pp. 273-286.
[78] Paraphrased from David Fée, Bob Colenutt and Sabine Coady Schäbitz, ‘Lessons from British and French New Towns: Paradise Lost?.’ in Lessons from British and French New Towns: Paradise Lost?, ed. by David Fée, Bob Colenutt and Sabine Coady Schäbitz (Emerald Publishing Limited, 2020), pp. 1-15.
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[80] David Fée, Bob Colenutt and Sabine Coady Schäbitz, ‘Lessons from British and French New Towns: Paradise Lost?.’ in Lessons from British and French New Towns: Paradise Lost?, ed. by David Fée, Bob Colenutt and Sabine Coady Schäbitz (Emerald Publishing Limited, 2020), pp. 1-15.
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