Lords committee presses government to commit to new towns as NFB warns on pipeline uncertainty

The House of Lords Built Environment Committee has told the government that developers, materials suppliers, utilities and training providers need firmer commitment before they will invest in delivering its new towns programme.

The report, titled New Towns: Commit and Build, identifies five areas requiring attention, according to the National Federation of Builders (NFB), which said the committee published it on 14 October 2026.

The NFB said the committee flagged reduced UK manufacturing capacity for construction materials as a potential constraint on new towns, and that a clear, long-term government commitment could give suppliers the confidence to maintain and increase production.

Richard Beresford, chief executive of the NFB, said: "We welcome the House of Lords report, as it reinforces the painful reality that government policies and pipeline uncertainty over the last three decades have stifled constructions ability to forward plan and invest."

The five areas

On infrastructure, the committee recommends a national resilience framework covering energy and water supplies, because of limits on utility providers' capacity to serve new settlements, the NFB said.

On workforce, the committee calls for a national review of non-degree construction training and apprenticeships, including high dropout rates, as part of the government's forthcoming jobs plan. It also recommends that new town delivery bodies work with employers and training providers on accredited training and apprenticeship programmes tailored to individual developments.

The committee's final recommendation concerns the government's own commitment. According to the NFB, the report says developers, construction businesses, utilities providers and training organisations need greater certainty from government before making the investments required.

Rico Wojtulewicz, director of policy and market insight at the NFB, said: "Uncertainty has plagued the construction industry for decades and it means businesses have not invested. Why would and how can any business invest in growth without a promise of work?"

Wojtulewicz said the federation hoped the first few new towns would get going in the next 12 months. He also cautioned about what he described as rumours that the government wanted to use new towns to advance volumetric offsite manufacturing, arguing that a programme built predominantly that way would ignore the wider established framework of modern methods of construction.

The programme so far

The New Towns Taskforce, led by Sir Michael Lyons, recommended that each new town should have at least 10,000 homes. In its initial response on 28 September 2025, the government welcomed all 12 locations the taskforce recommended and said they could collectively deliver up to 300,000 homes over the coming decades.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said at that stage that sites at Tempsford, Crews Hill and Leeds South Bank looked the most promising, and that it would set up a New Towns Unit to progress development.

In March 2026 the government published a draft New Towns Programme proposing to take forward seven locations, subject to consultation, which ran from 23 March to 19 May 2026. Six further locations it assessed, including Adlington, Heyford Park, Marlcombe, Plymouth, South Barking and Wychavon Town, were not taken forward as new towns at that stage.

The government said each proposed location was expected to deliver at least 10,000 homes, with several delivering 40,000 or more. Steve Reed, Housing Secretary, said at the time that the next generation of new towns marked a turning point in how the country builds for the future.

What happens next

The draft programme said the government was determined to get spades in the ground on at least three new towns in this Parliament.

The March 2026 announcement said final locations would be confirmed later this year.