In defence of Milton Keynes

Good morning. Growing up in Milton Keynes I learned to expect jibes about the city’s infamous roundabouts, “concrete cows” and meme-worthy reputation for blandness. But since moving away, I’ve come to appreciate how much Milton Keynes got right — as one of Britain’s biggest urban success stories. 

So with Stephen on holiday, I’m taking a closer look at the ingredients that went into it, and how they might feature in Labour’s pledge to build 1.5mn homes over five years, part of which involves a new generation of new towns.

Off the grid

Located in the “Oxford-Cambridge Arc”, Milton Keynes ranks among the UK’s top 10 cities outside London for wages and productivity — but with house prices roughly half those in the capital, despite growing demand from newcomers. That’s partly because the “new town” is building homes ahead of its target rate, with between 2,000 and 3,000 homes each year. 

Milton Keynes’ gross value added per hour worked (a productivity measure) is just ahead of Cambridge, according to the ONS. It’s becoming a hub for tech and defence companies.

There are other things I’ve learned from living there: you can cycle between the city’s 25 lakes almost without leaving the bike lanes. Chris Curtis, Labour’s MP for MK North, talks about Milton Keynes’ embrace of “the importance to keep building and keep growing” — notwithstanding the “inherent problems” faced by new towns “building culture from scratch”.

In the 1960s, the government loaned the Milton Keynes Development Corporation money and the MKDC could return its investment because it was empowered to buy land pretty cheaply at agricultural rates. The uplift in value after the developed land was sold or leased to private developers was then used to fund the city’s infrastructure. It was a model of strategic, state-led development — and one some urban planners believe could be revived to solve the housing crisis today.

Keir Starmer’s pro-growth mission involves building new towns with at least 40 per cent affordable housing, often via extensions of existing cities. A government task force is whittling down 100 proposals across England to a shortlist of up to 12 locations this summer. Construction is promised to start before the next election, primarily on low-quality “grey belt” land — “releasing the productive potential of constrained towns and cities across England”. So far, so good. As the Centre for Cities notes, the UK has failed to densify its second-tier cities, one reason why their productivity lags their G7 peers.

Far more than homes are needed for a sustainable settlement, of course. When I speak to people elsewhere who object to new housing developments, one big concern is the dearth of infrastructure: where are the GP surgeries, schools, leisure centres, sewage plants? New housing today is sometimes poorly aligned with infrastructure. Take Bicester, where a plan for 7,000 new homes and a commercial district has stalled while they wait to be connected to the National Grid. 

Another concern is character. Many of the postwar new towns, such as Basildon, had inadequate community facilities and underused centres that also lacked the intergenerational mixing residents had left. Then, as Jonn Elledge writes, developments constructed long after the new towns programme concluded have often amounted to overgrown housing estates with no cafés, pubs . . . vibrancy. 

What Milton Keynes got right was having a masterplan that sought to integrate homes, community spaces, parks, roads and schools from the start (though there were teething pains in the delivery of these facilities, as in other new towns). The MKDC’s board minutes in June 1967 called for “a broad concept — social and physical” to underpin land-use planning. The much-derided grid system helps separate main traffic flow from the pedestrian and cycle networks running through the city.

Beyond investment in the basic things such as transport, it’s critical that Labour’s new wave of new towns receive upfront government investment in the services knitting together community life, both of which ensure locals share in the benefits of the new housing projects and feel positive about growth.

In the postwar new towns, development corporations often offered special deals such as rent-free periods to businesses to encourage private enterprise, and close cross-sector co-operation led to some of the most successful privately owned facilities, such as pubs. In the words of Nigel Hugill, the head of developer Urban&Civic and who helped transform east London for the 2012 Olympics: “People are fed up with housing being built without amenities. If you do infrastructure and landscaping first, the level of acceptance is very high.”

Another important consideration for today is the need to involve communities in the long-term ownership and maintenance of all this social infrastructure. There’s good precedent for long-term asset stewardship in my hometown too. In 1992, the Milton Keynes Parks Trust charity was kick-started with a £22mn endowment in the form of freehold ownership of income-generating commercial properties. The returns fund the charity’s management of about 2,430 hectares of parks, woodlands and lakes in perpetuity.

In Lightmoor Village, part of Telford new town, residents shape the management of local assets and services through the Estate Management Committee — a model that the Town and Country Planning Association credits as central to the community’s successful development.

New towns alone won’t deliver 1.5mn homes by 2029. As housing minister Matthew Pennycook has said: “No one’s pretending that the new towns programme is going to make up the bulk of that 1.5mn number”. But done well, they could reset how we think about place-making and self-sufficiency. It’s hoped Labour’s planning reforms can free up housebuilding in the places they’re urgently needed, just as the MKDC bypassed local authorities to get things built. Now the government’s challenge is following through with its vision, not just on delivering homes, but also building places people want to live in. As Milton Keynes has shown, that all takes time.

Now try this

Enjoy this old but gold video of composer Angelo Badalamenti explaining how he wrote Laura Palmer’s theme for Twin Peaks. 

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