Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an estimate of the potential cost to (a) the public purse and (b) private developers of constructing 12 new towns.

The government has tasked the New Towns Taskforce, an independent expert advisory panel chaired by Sir Michael Lyons, with developing recommendations to ministers on suitable locations for new towns, as well as how to fund and deliver them.

The Taskforce will submit its final report in the near future and the government will subsequently publish both the report and its response.

Any hypothetical cost projections associated with the New Towns programme are, at this stage, pure speculation.