Throughout the early years, the progress of the New Towns Programme and its the apparent success or failure was never far from the newspaper headlines. Such short-term perspectives were extremely politicised with many on the right keen to tar the reputation of the New Towns as a failed socialist experiment. Against this was the view that the New Towns were providing crucial sites for British industry to expand and giving around a quarter of a million working-class city dwellers substantially improved living conditions. Establishing the truth of either position was in reality highly complex.