UK New Towns in the early years

Cwmbran was the first New Town to be designated in Wales and followed proposals made by Lewis Silkin in 1948 for two Welsh New Towns. Cwmbran included existing housing and industry and was partly constrained by existing railway lines and a canal.


Hemel Hempstead is a Mark One New Town designed by Geoffrey Jellicoe in the 1940s with development starting in the 1950s. It is the largest town in the borough and has a population of just over 82,000 (2001 Census). The town is quite compact and is surrounded by Green Belt.

East Kilbride was Scotland's first designated New Town in 1947.Expanded to provide new housing for people moving from nearby Glasgow.

Peterlee was created under the New Towns Act 1946 and it received it's first designation order on the 10th March 1948. Amending orders increasing the size of the designated area were approved on 20th July 1965, 16th December 1969 and 27th June 1978.

On the 25th of March 1947, Harlow was designated as New Town to cope with London's rapidly growing population post