New towns movement

The New Towns movement refers to towns that were built in the United Kingdom after World War II and the associated social movement to advocate for their construction. These towns were planned, developed, and built with two main intentions: to remedy overcrowding and congestion in some instances, and to organize scattered ad hoc settlements in others. The bigger purpose of this development was to reduce congestion in larger industrialised cities, and to rehouse people in freshly built, fully planned towns that were completely self-sufficient for the community. In 1918, at a time when nineteenth century sanitary advances had revealed how unhygienic urban environments were, and owing to pioneers such as Patrick Geddes, the relationship between social issues and town planning was slowly being realised. Frederick Osborn referred to urban problems collectively as the "urban disease". The urban disease, a consequence of the industrial revolution, emerged from a cycle where industries settled near population centers, attracting rural migrants seeking employment, leading to further industrialization. This resulted in increased pollution, population density, and declining rural areas. The lack of regulations allowed prosperous families to move to open spaces, while urban centers and rural areas deteriorated. Even those who relocated to new fringe suburbs to escape congestion unintentionally contributed to the process they sought to avoid. It was not until 1817 that the first model communities were proposed by social reformer Robert Owen to address overcrowded towns. Inspired by John Bellers's 1695 proposal for a College of Industry, a colony for the poor enabling disadvantaged people to work and their children to be educated, Owen proposed small, self-contained communities of about twelve hundred people reliant on agriculture but with some other industry. However, his plans "foundered under the heavy weight of revolutionary ideas" Further model community ideas continued to arise but were each dismissed owing to the perception that they were unconvincing as business ventures.