Shouldn’t New Towns be joy towns?
A ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to redefine the UK’s next wave of new towns
The UK’s planning to build a fresh generation of new towns. We think those towns should be full of character, and interest, and joy. Places we’d be proud to live in. Places that lift us up, not drag us down.
And according to our new research, so do residents. We commissioned Thinks Insights + Strategy to survey 1,000 people living in England’s post-war new towns to really understand what they think and feel about the buildings where they live.
The findings highlight a real aspiration gap between current perceptions of buildings in new towns and what people want them to be like in the future. Specifically, people want buildings in future new towns to have more of a positive emotional impact.
To complement the quantitative survey, we also spent time in the new town of Redditch in Worcestershire to hear the thoughts and feelings of residents living there. Watch the video
the
poll
We asked people which of three imaginary new towns they’d rather live in – which is your favourite?
Street 1
Street 2
Street 3
In our survey, design 3 received an overwhelmingly positive response from a pilot sample of respondents, who said it makes them “feel more valued and cared for” and described it as “not just your regular street”.
The poll also ran in The Times, and on our Instagram.
Illustrations by Heatherwick Studio. Image 1 based on a Create Streets image released by the Labour party June 2024.