How do we ensure these places become occupied communities rather than simply planning consents?

The government’s draft programme proposes seven locations, with each expected to deliver at least 10,000 homes and several capable of 40,000 or more over the decades ahead.

This is fundamental to meet housing targets and address the housing crisis while also supporting economic growth, because smaller sites rarely have the capacity to deliver transport, utilities, schools, healthcare, jobs and public realm as a single proposition in the way that new towns can.

But scale also creates a challenge: a development programme of this size cannot rely on one tenure, one buyer group or one sales market.

This is where BTR should have a more serious role — not as a late-stage fix for slow private sales or a substitute for affordable housing, but as one of the mechanisms that can help new communities to form and function.

A route to early occupation

A new town will not succeed on the basis of its illustrative masterplan but because people chose to live there, support the services, fill the school and create a sense of community. For this to work requires early occupation.

On large sites, private sale remains essential, but as we are seeing currently, it is exposed to interest rates, mortgage affordability and buyer confidence. If every early phase depends on individual purchasers, delivery can become stop-start but BTR offers another absorption route which brings institutional capital into a phase, creates a resident population sooner and gives local amenities a customer base while other tenures come forward.

Recent Real Estate:UK data shows that the UK BTR sector now has more than 147,670 completed homes and a total completed pipeline stock of just over 302,994 homes. It also accounted for 8% of the 210,000 new homes delivered in Great Britain in 2025. Those figures show that building has become a meaningful part of the system.

The right product for the right new town

There is a danger in discussing BTR in very general terms. In Leeds South Bank, Manchester Victoria North or Thamesmead, the opportunity may be apartment-led, transport-connected and closely linked to city-centre employment. In a location such as Tempsford, Milton Keynes or Brabazon, the more relevant model may be single-family housing (SFH): managed houses, terraces and townhouses for households who want the space and stability of a family home but are not ready or able to buy.

The Real Estate:UK figures show that 88% of completed and pipeline BTR stock is apartment-led and 12% is houses, and yet for a myriad of reasons not least building safety regulations, SFH is becoming the model of choice for developers.

Future new towns offer an opportunity to broaden that balance: they are not only about density around stations but also about creating places where people can stay through different life stages.

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BTR, whether co-living or SFH should therefore be considered as part of the tenure strategy at masterplanning stage. That means thinking about where BTR sits in relation to schools, transport, local centres, open space and employment and where discounted or key-worker rental products may fit.

Not an affordable housing alternative

The government’s proposed placemaking principles include a minimum target of 40% affordable housing, with at least half available for social rent. That is a significant ambition and it should not be confused with BTR. New towns need social rent, affordable rent, shared ownership, market sale and other routes into secure housing.

BTR’s role is different. It can provide professionally managed rental homes for people who might otherwise be in a fragmented private rented sector, including young professionals, families, key workers and people moving for employment. It can also provide a managed intermediate tenure in places where the gap between social housing and home ownership is too wide.

That is increasingly important because renting is no longer a short transition. The English Housing Survey records 4.7 million private rented households in England, representing 19% of households.

Capital is available, but selective. The interest shown by institutional investors is encouraging, but it is not straightforward. Savills reported £795m deployed into UK BTR in the first quarter of 2026, the strongest first quarter since 2022, with 68% of investment directed into operational stock. That tells us two things that although capital is interested in the sector, it is also looking for certainty and income.

At the same time, delivery pressure is evident. The Real Estate:UK data shows that units under construction fell by 17% in the year to Q1 2026 and starts fell by 65%. In other words, demand for the asset class has not removed the practical barriers to development. Planning risk, building safety, construction costs, finance costs, infrastructure timing and Section 106 expectations remain very important.

As the New Towns Programme progresses, it will be important to bear in mind that investors will not commit simply because a location has political status; investors need to see credible phasing, deliverable infrastructure, clear affordable housing assumptions, a realistic approach to utilities, robust stewardship and a planning framework that gives confidence over many years.

A stewardship model

BTR can also support the long-term management of new towns. A build-and-sell model has obvious strengths, but it does not always create a party with an enduring interest in resident experience, estate management and the performance of shared spaces. BTR is different because value is linked to long-term occupation, service quality and reputation.

Future new towns will need delivery models that can work through market cycles, support mixed communities and give public and private capital enough confidence to invest. BTR deserves to be considered at the start of those decisions, while new towns are still being shaped rather than after their delivery models have already been fixed.