Embedding public transport in new developments: time to adopt a new approach?

With five major transport bills and two related ones progressing through Parliament, transport has, unusually, become the busiest area of legislative activity this session. That should be welcomed. But it also means we must pay close attention to the wider policy landscape, particularly the bills and reforms that shape how and where new communities are built. Chief among these is the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, closely linked to the Government’s determination to meet ambitious housing targets. The proposed New Towns, though sitting outside the numerical target, reinforce the scale of that ambition. With all this combined, if we are embarking on a new era of large-scale housebuilding, then public transport has to be at the heart of how these places take shape.

The truth is that in Britain we have never fully cracked the relationship between planning and transport. Car-dependent sprawl has become an entrenched habit, and despite decades of good intentions, we struggle to shift away from it. Many European countries manage this far more effectively: building medium-density, transit-supported neighbourhoods within city regions, creating places that offer economic dynamism, good connectivity, and a quality of life that draws us back year after year as tourists. By contrast, our planning system remains centralised, our local authorities lack adequate revenue-raising powers, and our approach to new developments still too often sidelines transport until the very end.

One of the clearest examples of this problem is the question of road adoption. New developments are routinely built in a way that virtually guarantees car dependency because councils often adopt new roads far too late in the construction process. For years, estates can sit with unadopted roads, incomplete footpaths, and missing cycle links. Bus services are delayed, sometimes indefinitely. By the time proper connections are finally delivered, residents have already built their daily routines around the car, often helped along by generous parking provision that exceeds genuine household need.

I have raised this issue frequently in campaigning and policy work, but I also want to acknowledge the contribution of Ben Colson MBE, former Chair of Bus Users UK, founder of Norfolk Green Bus Company, and a deeply respected figure in West Norfolk and nationally. Ben highlights the situation in South Wootton, where a Section 106-funded bus service is not expected to begin until mid-2027. By that point, around 700 residents will already have spent years living in a car-dependent environment, with roughly 450 of them having done so for more than five years,, which is ample time for car-based habits to set in permanently.

When councils delay road adoption or hold back key through-routes until late in a build, the result is predictable: residents face hostile, incomplete environments for walking, cycling, or catching the bus. The neighbourhood effectively functions as a cul-de-sac, even if the masterplan intended otherwise.

This is why Campaign for Better Transport is clear that sustainable transport must be delivered from day one, not as a late-stage upgrade. A new estate should open with a functioning bus route, safe and continuous walking and cycling paths, and roads ready for council adoption, rather than temporary tracks and bus stops that serve no one.

With the Government now pressing ahead with New Towns and accelerating development through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, the stakes are higher than ever. If we repeat the old pattern of build first, connect later, we risk locking a new generation of communities into permanent car dependency.

If New Towns are to succeed, they must therefore start with transport. That means enforceable road adoption timelines, bus services running as the first residents arrive, safe active-travel links delivered upfront, and a planning system that recognises mobility as core infrastructure, not an optional extra.

By Michael Solomon Williams
Head of External Affairs, Campaign for Better Transport