This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Peiser, R. B. Articles by Chang, A. C. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Is It Possible to Build Financially Successful New Towns? The Milton Keynes Experience

Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA, rpeiser{at}gsd.harvard.edu.

Alain C. Chang

Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA, changa{at}koll.com.

The last generation of British new towns is being completed with the dissolution of the New Towns Development Corporations. As the final chapter of the new town movement in Britain draws to a close, this paper examines their financial success by focusing on Milton Keynes. Reputedly one of the most successful new towns, Milton Keynes was the last new town to be started and had the largest projected population. The paper examines the financial accounting reports from 1971 to 1993 and computes the economic returns for the new town as a whole and for each of the major property types. We find that Milton Keynes lost more than one-half a billion pounds. The paper explores why this happened and what the lessons are for new town development efforts around the world. The paper concludes that while it is possible to develop financially successful new towns, it is extremely difficult.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?