Active travel Buses Car clubs Car park conversion Climate change Cycling Design Garden communities Jobs Media and press New metro rail News New towns Parking Planning Public transport Rail Research Trams Transport for New Homes Volunteers Walking What is being built? What is being built in 2025? What is being built in 2026? Wheeling
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Autumn Event: Save the Date
Save the date for this in-person autumn event. More details will follow. Read more…
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Will the Selwood car-visioned garden community be given consent?
A test case as to whether we are serious about saying ‘no’ to locations that are not sustainable when it comes to transport. Read more…
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Why don’t we see more people cycling in new housing developments?
When we visit new housing estates something is usually missing. Read more…
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Spatial development strategy areas consultation
Respond to the government consultation on areas for spatial development strategies. Read more…
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Reflections on the 2026 National Planning Policy Framework consultation
Transport for New Homes think a more radical reform is needed to deliver truly sustainable development. Read more…
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Ten years of Transport for New Homes
In 2026, Transport for New Homes turns ten years old. Read more…
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Research topics for students and academics
Some examples of the research questions we would like answered. Read more…
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Help us visit new towns: old and new
What is being built in 2026? We want to find out. This year, we will focus on new towns, both proposed and already existing. What worked? What didn’t? What can we tell about the locations selected for the proposed new towns? Are they car dependent transport deserts or do they have the potential to be… Read more…
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2026 National Planning Policy Framework update
The government is consulting on an update to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). You need to get your comments in by 10 March 2026. We have some reflections on this consultation that might guide your response. Read more…
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Will ‘build, build, build’ put local planning at risk?
Will developers be able to bypass local plan production? Read more…
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An appeal from Transport for New Homes
Right now our work is more needed than ever. Read more…
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New towns programme
The government set up a New Towns Taskforce in 2024 to begin work on finding sites for prospective new towns in England. Read more…
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High housing targets in areas with poor public transport
In many of the local authority areas which have been given high targets, more people are dissatisfied with the quality of public transport. Read more…
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Government setting high housing targets in areas with poor public transport
PRESS RELEASE: The highest housing targets are in areas with the lowest levels of public transport satisfaction. Read more…
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Joint letter calling for a new framework to limit congestion from new homes
LETTER: With partners, we are call for the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to include a new framework in planning law to limit congestion from new homes. Read more…
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Help keep Transport for New Homes going
Please support our work with a donation. Read more…
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Where is the money for public transport to new homes outside cities?
New metros in England are not possible without funding. Read more…
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Another way of building new homes and faster too
There is another way to build new homes quickly and sustainably. Read more…
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Poundbury is a case study in getting transport right
Poundbury is mixed development built around streets and walkable community facilities. Read more…
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Safe and convenient cycling networks must go beyond development boundaries
New housing needs to be connected to safe and convenient cycle routes. Read more…
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Trams and light rail are not reaching out of the cities
Tram networks should reach out of cities to connect with new developments. Read more…
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Buses are falling short of their potential
Every new housing estate should be served by bus. Read more…
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Rail is missing from new housing estates
Large new housing areas in England were very rarely built with a new station to cater for future residents. Read more…
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What places designed around the car look like
Urban form follows the transport modes that are available. Read more…
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New metro for a hidden city of 350,000 people
We need to build new homes around mass transit systems. Read more…
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Apartments can offer everything on your doorstep
Apartments offer so much compared to lower density estates. Read more…
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Where are the delightful walkable places?
Explore the walking theme from our recent report. Read more…
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Convenient town centre housing in every town
We are exploring how swathes of land given over to parking could be put to better use. Read more…
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Is it really planning when the Treasury decides if a new station opens?
We have some ideas about how strategic planning could work better in practice. Read more…
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Three recommendations for planning reform
Based on our most recent report we suggest three changes. Read more…
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Transport for New Homes responds to Planning and Infrastructure Bill
PRESS RELEASE: Responding to the publication of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill Read more…
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‘Jigsaw puzzle’ developments are creating car-dependent estates
New housing estates have some of the most important pieces missing. Read more…
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New housing developments like ‘a jigsaw with pieces missing’
PRESS RELEASE: A new report has concluded that a combination of wrong location, wrong transport and a lack of density is resulting in car dependent ‘tarmac’ housing estates which are increasing congestion and limiting housing choices. Read more…
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Site Visitor (Volunteer)
We are looking for volunteers to go on site vists. Read more…
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UPDATED: 2025 planning reforms
Details of the planning reform expected in early 2025. Read more…
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Housing targets direct new homes to public transport deserts
Car dependency is caused by a system that puts houses in unsustainable location. Read more…
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Unseen power of engineers and transport planners
Guest post from Mark Philpotts, the founder of City Infinity, Read more…
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What do we mean by good design?
Some examples of what we mean by good design. Read more…
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The Swedish solution – sustainable transport and new apartments
Two development areas on the outskirts of Uppsala are good examples of the completely different Swedish approach. Read more…
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What do we mean by bad design?
Some examples of what we mean by bad design. Read more…
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New homes conveniently situated on the bypass
Join us on a visit to a new housing estate on the edge of Warminster. Read more…
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Transit-oriented development built without the transit
The curious case of the transit-led scheme that is missing the transit. Read more…
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Converting retail barns to housing
Conversion of large obsolete car dependent out-of-town retail barns to new uses looks good on paper. Read more…
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You can help us continue our work
Contribute to our fundraiser to keep us going, Read more…
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UPDATED: Proposed reforms to the NPPF
Changes are proposed to the NPPF and the planning system. Find out how to have your say. Read more…
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Where to find us on social media
Starting August 2024 we will no longer post to Twitter/X and our account there will close. Read more…
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UPDATED: Transport for New Homes
We have some good news to share with you. Read more…
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New homes, wildflowers and a railway station: a visit to Kidbrooke Village
Kidbrooke Village is a large new development of some 4,700 homes in the borough of Greenwich, South East London. The development replaced the 1960s/ 1970s Ferrier Estate which was knocked down to build something completely different. The development is a partnership between local government, housing developers, and community stakeholders and consists of an interesting and unusual… Read more…
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Wichelstowe: a visit to Swindon’s new urban extension
In May 2024 Transport for New Homes visited a new part of Swindon called Wichelstowe, a large urban extension which has been slowly built up over the last 18 years since it was given planning permission in 2006. Swindon centre itself appears to be in bad need of regeneration with the Brunel Shopping centre having… Read more…
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A very different model of development
Freiham is specifically designed as a green and pleasant place for walking and cycling and for using public transport. Read more…
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Call for volunteers
We are calling for volunteers to visit sites around England as part of the fieldwork for our research. Read more…
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Upside-down geography
Locations for new housing are not considered in terms of sustainable transport, access to services, employment or environmental impact. Read more…
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New “cowpat” housing developments are adding to traffic congestion and locking communities into car-dependency
PRESS RELEASE: New research has found that greenfield housing estates are adding hundreds of thousands of new car journeys to our roads, increasing congestion, carbon emissions and air pollution. Read more…
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Transport for New Homes: a story told in postcards
John and Jill have been house-hunting in some recently-built developments. They sent these postcards back to show what they found. Since John and Jill don’t drive, they have been using trains and buses to get to the new housing areas, sometimes with adventures on the way. In the end they do find places to suit… Read more…
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Decarbonising transport: let’s get planning reform right
All over the country, local authorities are preparing local plans for the future, many of these spanning 15 or 20 years up to and beyond 2035. The manifestation of past local plans has now appeared in the form of new areas of housing, but these are far from green transport-wise. We have visited many large… Read more…
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Decarbonising Transport: land use planning is key
PRESS RELEASE: We welcome the positive language about getting people out of their cars onto public transport. Read more…
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Planning in the spotlight: the implications of THAT byelection
Blog by Jenny Raggett, Transport for New Homes There has in recent days been much talk about the Chesham and Amersham byelection, a constituency that has always been Conservative but has now been won by the Liberal Democrats. An important election issue was the Government’s proposed changes to the planning system, with fears that planning… Read more…
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Alastair Hanton: a tribute
Alastair Hanton, who died last month, helped to found Transport for New Homes and was a wise and insightful presence on our Steering Group and at our events. Stephen Joseph has written this tribute to our friend. I’ve known Alastair for over 30 years – when I became director of Transport 2000 (later Campaign for… Read more…
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‘Beauty’ alone won’t solve the climate crisis
This guest blog by Cycling UK’s policy director Roger Geffen argues that the Government’s draft National Planning Policy Framework makes it commendably easy for councils to reject planning applications which aren’t ‘beautiful’, but creates massive hurdles for councils wishing to reject developments that would entrench car-dependence. The blog was first published on the Cycling UK… Read more…
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Planning reforms risk adding “a tide of car traffic” to crowded roads, Housing Secretary told
PRESS RELEASE: New housing is being sited in places that cannot be served well by public transport, are inaccessible on foot or cycle and often have few or no local facilities. Read more…
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Our joint letter calling for planning reforms to include transport and accessibility
LETTER: With partners, we are calling for planning reforms to include transport and accessibility at an early stage of planning for new homes. Read more…
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Three changes we’d like to see to the plans for the planning system
We don’t think the current planning system is working, especially when it comes to transport, so we were excited to learn what the government planned. But we had some concerns about the policies proposed. In short, we didn’t think they would make things better. Read more…
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Planning for transport demand through the Decide and Provide Approach
What will the likely transport impact of a new development be? How many trips is it likely to generate? To work this out, transport planners use TRICS, which is a database of information about the trips generated by past developments. In the past, TRICs has been used as part of a ‘Predict and Provide’ paradigm,… Read more…
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A tale of two developments: why new planning reforms threaten to entrench unsustainable lifestyles
This blog by Steve Chambers, sustainable transport campaigner at Transport for New Homes, was first published by as a guest blog by Green Alliance. In 2018, Transport for New Homes produced an initial report that revealed the deep flaws in the planning system which leave new housing developments with inadequate walking, cycling and public transport… Read more…
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How land value capture is being used to help communities
When infrastructure such as a new rail line is built, the value of the land around it goes up: suddenly this land is desirable for housebuilding because people want to live near the new rail route. Landowners hit the jackpot. The problem is that such infrastructure projects are often tricky to get funding for in… Read more…
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For housing fit for the future, let’s get these policies right
The Government is consulting on changes to the National Model Design Code and National Planning Policy Framework. Together, these documents will set the direction for the housing that we build in the near future. With hundreds of thousands of new homes needed, it’s vital that these two documents take transport properly into account: we must… Read more…
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If conservation areas can have a mix of homes and amenities, why can’t newly planned communities?
We’re concerned that a proposed change to ‘permitted development rights’ would make it harder for local authorities to plan communities with a mix of homes, shops and services. Our Homes Without Jams campaign is all about ensuring changes to the planning system result in new homes being built in the right locations with good transport… Read more…
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Our joint letter to the Telegraph about high street planning
LETTER: We urge the Government to think again about its proposals to allow high street businesses to be changed to housing without full planning permission. Read more…
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Planning white paper risks more car dependent sprawl
We had several concerns with the reforms as proposed. The first, and for us most concerning, is that the proposals barely mention transport at all. We need to address how we will provide and fund public transport to the new places we plan to build. Read more…
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Sustainability Through the Looking Glass
Guest blog by Richard Tamplin ”When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” Of course, we all know what sustainability means – don’t we? It’s now almost 40 years since the United Nations, concerned by the… Read more…
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So, what else could we build?
In our recent report, Garden Villages and Garden Towns: Visions and Reality, we explain that, although the visions for garden communities are often very good, we fear ‘business as usual’. Rather than enabling people to walk, cycle and use public transport to go about their daily lives, these developments will generate high levels of traffic by… Read more…
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Planning reform is on the way
Planning reform is on the way. But will it lead to better development in the right places, and stop car-based sprawl? From the point of view of Transport for New Homes, and the many others who are appalled at the spread of car-dependent new housing dominated by roads and parking, planning reform should be about… Read more…
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If Active Travel England is set up right it could increase walking and cycling for residents of new homes
On 28 July 2020 the UK Government announced the creation of Active Travel England, a funding body for walking and cycling provision in England and also an inspectorate of the work of highways authorities. This formed part of the Gear Change: A bold vision for cycling and walking plans set out the same day. The… Read more…
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Planning and COVID-19
Back in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic we noticed that planning and development were continuing. We asked you to get in touch about what was happening in your local area, to tell us how decisions were being made about new housing. We worried that changes to oversight of planning might mean that proper… Read more…
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Green promises broken: Garden Villages and Garden Towns will be dominated by the car
PRESS RELEASE: Far from being vibrant, green communities, Garden Villages and Garden Towns are at high risk of becoming car-dependent commuter estates. Read more…
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Let us know how changes to the planning system are affecting your area
Planning and the making of planning decisions have not stopped because of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis. The Coronavirus Act 2020 gave councils the ability to run planning committees remotely. However, even before this legislation became law many authorities were making new arrangements for planning decisions, including delegating decisions to officers and council leaders rather than… Read more…
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Looking to the UN Sustainable Development Goals to guide good urban growth
Guest blog by Camilla Ween, RIBA, MCIHT, AoU, Harvard Loeb Fellow The planet is in a climate crisis and the UK is in a housing crisis. We need a paradigm shift in the way we do things so that we can deliver about 250,000 new homes annually, that will not exacerbate our attempts to reach… Read more…
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Transport for New Homes Award: Royal Arsenal Riverside
Royal Arsenal Riverside was announced as winner of the Transport for New Homes Award 2019 in the metropolitan category. Judge Tim Pharoah, who visited the development, tells us why. London needs many more homes, and high-density developments are required. At Woolwich Arsenal, the impact of tall blocks is lessened by the generous provision of open… Read more…
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Transport for New Homes Award: Bath Riverside
Bath Riverside was announced as winner of the Transport for New Homes Award 2019 in the non-metropolitan category. Judge Tim Pharoah, who visited the development, tells us why. All too often new housing is built around car use, but Bath Riverside bucks the trend in a positive way by providing really good walking, cycling and… Read more…
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Transport for New Homes Award: Poundbury
Poundbury is an urban extension to the Dorset county town of Dorchester, built according to the principles of Charles, Prince of Wales, on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. Poundbury was highly commended in the Transport for New Homes Awards 2019. Judge Jenny Raggett, who visited the development, tells us why. One of the… Read more…
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Transport for New Homes Award 2019: winners announced
The winners of the Transport for New Homes Award 2019 are: Royal Arsenal Riverside, south east London (metropolitan winner) Bath Riverside, Bath (non-metropolitan winner) The first ever Transport for New Homes Awards, run in partnership with the Transport Planning Society as part of its Transport Planning Day, set out to celebrate recent large developments which… Read more…
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Planning reform: we must steer away from car-dependent sprawl
PRESS RELEASE: Our country needs more homes. What we don’t need is more sprawling, car-dependent estates far from town centres and public transport links. Read more…
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Transport for New Homes Award: shortlist announced
Over the summer, we asked members of the public, professionals and developers to nominate recent UK developments of more than 500 homes for the Transport for New Homes Award 2019, run in partnership with the Transport Planning Society as part of its Transport Planning Day. We wanted to celebrate places that buck the trend of… Read more…
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New Checklist to help root out car-dependent housing developments
In the rush to build new homes, too many estates are being built without public transport, local facilities or even pavements, leading to car dependence, congestion, pollution and unhealthy lifestyles. Now Transport for New Homes, a campaign group seeking to halt the spread of such car-based development, has produced a Checklist to enable local authorities,… Read more…
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How new housing developments can benefit from car clubs
A car club based within a community can have a whole host of benefits for those who live there. Read more…
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It’s difficult to produce sustainable travel patterns if you don’t build in the right places
Guest blog by Gordon Stokes, Visiting Research Associate at Transport Studies Unit, University of Oxford Finding the right places to locate large numbers of new homes and jobs in crowded areas of the South East will need great care if we’re trying to encourage modes other than the car. New mapping shows graphically how people… Read more…
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In Memoriam Simon Norton
We were deeply sad to learn that Simon Norton, a supporter of Transport for New Homes since its inception, passed away in February 2019. A passionate and thoughtful campaigner for sustainable transport, Simon Norton helped to set up Transport for New Homes and funded the project through the Foundation for Integrated Transport, a grant-making charity… Read more…
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Forced into car-dependence: report reveals new housing with scant public transport and nowhere to walk to
PRESS RELEASE: A report by Transport for New Homes has revealed deep flaws in the planning system which leave new housing developments with inadequate walking, cycling and public transport connections to surrounding areas. With limited facilities locally, residents are for the most part forced into car-dependency. Read more…
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