New towns 'taskforce'

AN expert taskforce is being launched to spearhead Labour's plans for a fresh generation of new towns.

The towns, which the new Government says will create communities of at least 10,000 homes each, are billed as a part of the largest housebuilding programme since the post-war period. Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, has asked two experts to lead the independent New Towns Taskforce.

Its chair, Sir Michael Lyons, has played leading roles in regeneration development company the English Cities Fund, as well as in local government, and has sat on the board of housing developers.

Deputy chair Dame Kate Barker is a housing economist who also chairs a major universities pension scheme and was an external member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee between 2001 and 2010.