ABSTRACT
The question of the long-term success of the New Towns is fundamentally one of the notion of sustainability. Since the 1990s, sustainable development, defined by The United Nations Brundtland Report, has sought to ensure that decisions in the present do not undermine the quality of life of those living in the future. Social and economic sustainability relate to the continued existence of fundamentals such as decent schools or employment needed to underpin the success of a place. The British planning system was created in the 1930s precisely because a boom of poorly planned urban development had failed to provide the basic amenities to ensure places that functioned properly. As described in Chapter 2, residents of the vast council housing estates created in the interwar period sometimes had to pay so much money to commute to work that they could not afford to eat. Even the middle class commuter suburbs forced people into spending over two hours a day sat on a train.
