POSTSCRIPT ON NEW TOWNS - THE END OF AN ERA

Even the most anti-new town protagonist must admit that new towns have been successful. Promoted by the first Labour Government after the Se cond World War to provide housing and relieve overcrowding in the larg e cities, the essence was speed and the development corporations appoi nted by the Government responded to the challenge. Since then, there h as been widespread migration of population from the cities, together w ith a decline of central areas in older towns. This, combined with a s ignificant reduction in the forecast population growth in the UK, resu lted in a change of emphasis which began in the mid-1970s and has cont inued ever since. In this latter period, new town development corporat ions (NTDCs) have been criticized for being undemocratic, and the new towns blamed for the decline of the cities. The fact that NTDCs have e xisted for 50 years promoting and building 32 new towns in the UK is a success story in itself. More recently, urban development corporation s (UDCs) have been appointed by central government to rejuvenate decli ning areas in major cities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The re is, however, a basic difference-whereas NTDCs were all-embracing or ganizations undertaking most functions in-house, UDCs are enabling aut horities employing minimum in-house staff to set briefs, appoint consu ltants and monitor progress. The role of development corporations can be summed up in the words of Stephen Holley, the former General Manage r of Washington Development Corporation: 'It's quicker by quango'. Eve ryone involved in the new town movement will have had their successes and failures, and it would be inappropriate to quote likes and dislike s based on a relatively superficial knowledge of individual new towns, but the author's highlights would be their innovation at the forefron t of technical knowledge. This paper provides a brief history of the d evelopment of the new towns over the half century from 11 November 194 6 to 31 December 1996, when the last British new towns will finally cl ose their doors--the end of an era which has resulted in 2.5 million p eople (4.5% of the UK population) living and over 1 million people wor king in the new towns.2