To Solve Its Housing Crisis, Britain Turns to an Old Idea: New Towns

On a baking hot afternoon in July, Firouz Thompson proudly drove down the freshly paved road that leads into Northstowe, a new town about six miles northwest of Cambridge, England.

“This is where the new town center will be,” said Ms. Thompson, a Northstowe resident, as she pointed to an empty patch of land that will eventually include a market hall, convenience store, library and health center. Nearby there is already a high school and an all-ages special needs school. Soon, a preschool will open.

By 2040, this former World War II airfield will be transformed into a thriving town with 10,000 homes and about 25,000 residents. Or, at least, the British government, regional officials and residents hope so.

Today, Northstowe has just 1,450 homes in a mixture of low apartment blocks and single-family houses, surrounded by fields, construction sites and newly planted trees that offer no respite from the heat. Nearly a decade after its groundbreaking, Northstowe has become an example of the sluggish pace at which Britain is chipping away at its housing crisis.

“The U.K. has had a worse housing crisis than most of its peer countries, for a longer period that most of its peer countries, whether in Europe or North America,” said Anthony Breach, a researcher at Centre for Cities, an urban policy think tank. Britain went from having one of the best housing stocks in Europe after World War II to falling behind, he added.

To address the growing need for homes, the country’s governing Labour Party has vowed to “unleash” development and build 1.5 million homes over the next five years, a pace of house building last seen in the 1960s.