Labour hopes 12 'new towns' will ease UK's housing crisis

PLANS for a generation of "new towns" will be unveiled today in the latest effort to tackle the housing crisis.

- By David Williamson and Steph Spyro

Twelve locations in England, each having at least 10,000 new homes, have been identified, but construction is expected to start at only three of them before the next election.

The developments will have "firstclass local GP surgeries, schools, green spaces and transport links".

The first three are expected to be in Tempsford, Bedfordshire, in the "heart of the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor; an "expanded development" bringing together Enfield's Chase Park and Crews Hill to address "London's acute housing need"; and Leeds' South Bank.

New development corporations are expected to deliver the projects and may have special planning powers to "compulsorily purchase land, invest in local GPs and schools, and grant planning permission".

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: "For so many families, homeownership is a distant dream.