At 10.45am on Tuesday 13 May 2025, the House of Lords Built Environment Committee, continues its inquiry on new towns and expanded settlements, hearing evidence from:
- Kane Emerson, Head of Housing Research at the YIMBY Alliance
- Elizabeth Bundred-Woodward, Planning Policy Manager at the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE)
- Professor John Sturzaker, Ebenezer Howard Chair of Planning, University of Hertfordshire.
This session, which is open to the public, will be held in Committee Room 2 of the House of Lords and streamed live on Parliament TV.
This session is focusing on public engagement and building support for the new towns programme, as well as for individual new towns and expanded settlements. The committee is likely to ask about:
- How successful the Government’s messaging has been regarding the proposed new towns.
- Where responsibility for taking the lead on public engagement on new towns should lie.
- How local opposition to the proposed new towns can be mitigated.
- How best to engage with existing communities in the case of urban extensions, rather than clean slate new towns.
- Should central government be able to override local opposition to get new towns and expanded settlements built.
The committee has published a call for evidence. Due to the level of interest in this inquiry from across society, the deadline for submissions has been extended until 00:01 on Friday 23 May 2025. The committee strongly encourages submissions from all sections of society.
