New Town

new town, a form of urban planning designed to relocate populations away from large cities by grouping homes, hospitals, industry and cultural, recreational, and shopping centres to form entirely new, relatively autonomous communities. The first new towns were proposed in Great Britain in the New Towns Act of 1946; between 1947 and 1950, 12 were designated in England and Wales and 2 in Scotland, each with its own development corporation financed by the government. The new towns were located in relatively undeveloped sites. Each was to have an admixture of population so as to give it a balanced social life. Proposed ultimate population figures of this first group of new towns ranged from 29,000 to 140,000. After 1961, target population figures for proposed new towns rose to 70,000 to 250,000.

The idea of new towns found favour in many other countries, notably in the United States, various countries of western Europe, and Soviet Siberia.

The chief criticism of new towns has been that they may be too static in conception. In Sweden, for example, a master plan prepared in 1952 envisaged establishing around the periphery of Stockholm some 18 communities, each with its own residences, places of employment, and shopping and cultural facilities. What was not satisfactorily anticipated in the plans, however, was the dramatic increase in commuting and other forms of personal mobility that obviated the need for the new towns to be so self-contained. Of the 27,000 wage earners in the suburb of Vallingby, for instance, 25,000 were found to be commuting out, half of them to the centre of Stockholm; in fact, Vallingby’s own industries were drawing in commuters from outside.