The Administrative Problems of building a New Town in the United Kingdom
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1969.tb00357.x |
| Author | Richard S. McDougall |
| Date | 01 January 1969 |
| Published date | 01 January 1969 |
The
Administrative Problems of building
a
New
Town in the United Kingdom
By
RICHARD
S.
McDOUGALL
Mr. McDougall previously County Treasurer, Hertfordshire, has recently retired
after completing
10
Years as General Manager of the Stevenage New
Town
Develop-
ment Corporation. He has also advised the Governments in Sierra Leone, Nyasaland
(now Malawi), Fiji and Kenya.
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Soon after the 1939-45 War it became Government policy that New Towns
should be built principally to encourage people to leave the large cities -
heavily overcrowded and still growing fast and to find homes and work in
new towns thirty or more milesaway from these cities.
It
was thus hoped to
reduce the population or at least to stem the increase of the larger cities - so
swollen that travelling to work wastaking a disproportionate part of a man's
day and of his income.
Stevenage - the first of the New Towns was established in 1946following
the New Towns Act of that year and was planned thirty miles north of
London on the railway and main road to the North.
The New Towns Act provided that new towns were to be built by Govern-
ment sponsored Development Corporations wholly financed by the govern-
ment, the members of which - at most nine people - were to be appointed by
the government and to be answerable to and subject to directions from the
Minister of Housing &Local Government.
The
latter being responsible to
Parliament for all the deeds and faults of his Corporations.
At the time of writing there are 23 New Towns with a total population of
well over
800,000
planned to grow by the end of the century to more than
2,000,000.
Three more have recently been designated and there are six
more in the preparatory stage.
What are the merits and demerits of this peculiar administrative set up ?
In their favour are firstly the limit of nine people as the governing body
compared with the unwieldy number of members of local authorities.
Secondlythey have one task only, namely to plan and build atown - singleness
of purpose is a great advantage. There is a great sense of urgency in their
task. They have all adopted the General Manager system under which one
person is responsible for co-ordinating the work of planners, architects,
engineers, housing managers, lawyers, accountants, etc., and is directly
responsible to the Development Corporation for the work of all departments.
Unlike most Local Authorities these Development Corporations are not
political bodies,their members are appointed by the Minister of Housing &
Local Government and are liableto dismissalor to direction by the Minister.
What then are the disadvantages of this system under which Development
Corporations are given special planning powers and the right to compulsory
purchase of land. It's the same old cliche - Rights carry Obligations. In the
case of Development Corporations the rights are followed by considerable
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