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, limiting housing choices for those who don’t want to drive everywhere, and damaging existing town centres.

What is being built in 2025? In search of the station, from Transport for New Homes, reveals that housing targets aimed at rural parts of the country and a developer-led choice of location are creating car-dependent estates far away from major urban areas and isolated from good public transport. 

The report concluded that car-based suburban sprawl, with lifestyles shaped around driving, is now the default model of development.

Jenny Raggett, Project Coordinator at Transport for New Homes, said: 

“New housing estates being built in England resemble a jigsaw puzzle with some of the most important pieces missing – the stations, the mass transit systems and on-site community provision and services. Housing targets aimed at rural or semi-rural parts of the country and a developer-led choice of location where to build, are plonking more and more giant housing estates on fields on the edge of towns and villages, places where it’s all about driving. We need to build differently to avoid this ‘doughnut effect’, whereby everything ends up on out of town greenfield sites whilst brownfield sites lie unbuilt and derelict, and high streets are dying.”

Steve Gooding, Director, RAC Foundation, said:

“With at-scale house building high on the Government’s agenda, this report is a timely reminder of what can go wrong in developing new homes but importantly also provides policymakers and developers with guidance and tangible examples of how to get it right in providing the sustainable, accessible and all-round live-able developments we need.” 

What is being built in 2025? In search of the station, looked at nearly 40 new housing developments, including four in Europe (Germany and Sweden), and explored a number of themes, including: whether the development was ultimately designed around the car; traffic generation and its consequences; public transport connections including bus, local rail and trams; and whether there are a range of amenities to walk or cycle to. The report also includes a section on why the planning system fails to deliver sustainable transport.

Volunteers visited each development and looked at the type and mix of housing, transport links, layout and on-site facilities, and concluded that nearly every greenfield development was oriented around the car. None of the large-scale housing greenfield developments visited for the report were on metro or tram systems, buses were in many cases infrequent or insufficient and went to limited destinations, and safe and convenient active travel options did not connect the development to places people wanted to go to. The report only identified one large-scale greenfield development, Poundbury in Dorset, which it considered to be a vibrant ‘self-contained’ community on account of being genuinely mixed use and built from the start for walking rather than driving.

Steve Chambers, Sustainable Transport Campaigner at Transport for New Homes, said:

“Wherever your new home is, you should be able to go out the front door, and know that there are local amenities to walk to and turn up and go public transport available that connects you to a whole network of destinations. What our report found was that the current planning system is simply not delivering this vision. We need to bring the planning of new homes and sustainable transport together to create places that give people genuine choice about how they travel.” 

To accomplish a different model of delivering new homes and avoid more car-dependent sprawl, Transport for New Homes makes three recommendations:

• Build transit-oriented developments serving residents from day one of occupation: New developments should be planned around better public transport, connected with metros, tram systems and comprehensive bus networks, available to residents on the day they move in to avoid entrenching car dependency. 
• New homes must be built in better locations: The planning system needs to direct building in more sustainable locations, with decisions on where we build new homes taken with more of an evidence-based approach. Places must be selected that will work with new transport infrastructure and promote regeneration, economic growth and good access to services. A revised National Planning Policy Framework needs to make this kind of wider area planning possible. 
• Deliverable masterplans that create delightful walkable and well-connected places: Local authorities and urban designers need to be able to masterplan large-scale developments as walkable, well-connected and mixed-use places with housebuilders then able to build to the plan. All parties involved need to have the assurance that the funding and governance will be in place to achieve sustainable transport aims. To achieve these, transport and land use planning must be considered at local and strategic levels with changes to the current planning system to make this possible.

Read What is being built in 2025? In search of the station in full.

Case Study: Green and delightful walkable places – Poundbury, Dorset

The public realm at Poundbury is designed around people rather than cars to help create an attractive environment and a series of well-connected streets and squares. The principles of the design in Poundbury have inspired town planners all over the world. Car ownership is much lower than for nearly all other urban extensions and fringe of town greenfield housing.

Poundbury is a mixed-use walkable and well-connected development on a large greenfield site abutting Dorchester in Dorset. Its success is not down to just one thing but getting several elements right. A truly mixed walkable development of eventually 5,000 homes (by 2025) with offices, shops, cafes, pubs, restaurant, supermarket, community centre, school and even a garden centre, all based around streets in town, not on the bypass or off a ring road. There are now more than 3,800 people living and 2,306 people working in Poundbury.

In Poundbury 35% of homes being built are affordable housing for rent, shared ownership or discounted to open market sale. Affordable homes are integrated with private homes and built to the same high specification which makes Poundbury “tenure blind”.

Case Study: Public transport connections – Cranbrook new town, Devon 

Cranbrook has 3,000 new homes at present. This number is expected to grow to around 8,000 homes with an eventual population of more than 20,000 people, making it one of the biggest towns in East Devon. 

The new town has a history of slow development in terms of community provision. Built a few miles east of Exeter, Cranbrook was started in 2011 with the first house occupied in 2012. In 2013 a community centre opened, funded partly by public money (regional development funding. A GP surgery and pharmacy opened in April 2015, and the 1,000th home was occupied the following month, in December that year services started from Cranbrook station, situated outside the town, and benefitting from £3 million developer funding.

The Cranberry Farm pub on the A30 opened in 2017 and in 2022 the Community Hub opened at Cranbrook Education Campus. A large swath of the new town was without any shops until 2025 when a Morrisons supermarket opened which it is hoped will also provide job opportunities and a central meeting point for the community. East Devon Council are doing 

Cranbrook contrasts with Poundbury in that it has not managed to integrate new homes with new businesses, shops, and the layout is not designed for pedestrians in the same way. With Poundbury the landowner invested in funds to achieve their vision and was able to control how the urban extension evolved as a place rather mostly, a housing estate.

The bus service from Cranbrook to Exeter is good, although it takes 30-40 minutes as the new town is some way away from its parent city. The hourly railway service offers a fast way in, but the new station at Cranbrook is some way from the built up area and there is no bus to the station. We noticed that the supermarket and the eateries expected many people to arrive by car. From the 2021 census, about half the population owned two or more cars or vans, about double the figure in Poundbury.

Case Study: Apartments can offer everything on your doorstep – Kungsängen, Uppsala, Sweden

What will Uppsala be like in 2050? The city has done a Comprehensive Plan which shows how the municipality wants land used. The plan shows where buildings, roads, green areas and other facilities that are needed for functioning daily life will be located. By 2050 Uppsala may have as many as 340,000 inhabitants. So the plan explains, it needs more housing, workplaces, schools and other social amenities. ‘People should have good proximity to services, workplaces and each other..In the next few years, 3,000 new homes will be needed every year…which means that the city will become more densely populated. There must also be space for the business sector to expand, with 2,000 new jobs a year’.

But by 2050, four new urban nodes will have emerged: Gränby, Gottsunda-Ultuna, Bergsbrunna and Börjetull. These will contain a mix of housing, workplaces, services and parks. Enhanced public transport will link together the urban nodes with both each other and the inner city. There is also much discussion about the quality of life and societal development, improving the environment and public health.

What we saw visiting new areas: The city has deliberately decided to build the many thousands of new homes it needs as modern low rise apartments around green communal squares. With many people living in proximity, shops, cafes, restaurants and civic amenities become viable. With an excellent and frequent bus network made all the better by so many people living near to stops, the bus is what everyone uses unless they cycle or walk, including—we found—to visit nature reserves and lakes. A tram is planned, public transport is very popular.

ENDS 

For more information contact media@transportfornewhomes.org.uk.

Notes to Editors

1. What is being built in 2025? In search of the station explored ten themes in total: places designed around the car; car dependent sprawl; more roads, more cars, more traffic; green and delightful walkable places; apartments can offer everything on your doorstep; safe and convenient cycling; rail is missing; buses are falling short of their potential; trams and light rail are not reaching out of the cities; and how the planning system fails to deliver sustainable transport.
2. The RAC Foundation is a transport policy and research organisation which explores the economic, mobility, safety and environmental issues relating to roads and their users. The Foundation publishes independent and authoritative research with which it promotes informed debate and advocates policy in the interest of the responsible motorist.
3. Transport for New Homes believes that everyone should have access to attractive housing, located and designed to ensure that people do not need to use or own cars to live a full life. Transport for New Homes is a social enterprise (company number 13488016).