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Brabazon survives cull as New Town shortlist shrinks to seven
Rod Sweet Global Construction Review
The ongoing transformation of Filton Airfield in Bristol is a “project of national significance”, developer YTL tells CM.
Artist’s rendering of the up-and-coming City Green at Brabazon New Town. Image courtesy of YTL
The developer of Brabazon, a new urban district going up on the old Filton Airfield in north Bristol, is celebrating its inclusion in a whittled-down list of seven new towns, which the government on Sunday said had been “named for consideration”.
The independent New Towns Taskforce had recommended a shortlist of 12 sites in September 2025, but five of those have now been dropped. The five are standalone settlements in Adlington, Cheshire East and Marlcombe, East Devon; the redevelopment of the former airbase at Heyford Park in Cherwell; densified development in Plymouth; and expanded development at Worcestershire Parkway, Wychavon.
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Brabazon and the West Innovation Arc, South Gloucestershire: Up to 40,000 homes in an area stretching from Brabazon east to include Bristol Parkway Station and the Bristol & Bath Science Park at Lyde Green, an area with an existing ecosystem of advanced aerospace engineering;
Tempsford, Bedfordshire: Up to 40,000 homes built around a new East West Rail station, linking residents to Cambridge, Oxford, London and Milton Keynes;
Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire: A renewal of one of the original new towns, some 40,000 homes and a new local transport system are planned to boost connectivity in the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor;
Crews Hill and Chase Park, Enfield: Up to 21,000 homes helping to meet London’s acute housing need;
Leeds South Bank, West Yorkshire: Up to 20,000 homes capitalising on the city’s economic momentum and the government’s £2.1bn local transport investment;
Manchester Victoria North, Greater Manchester: At least 15,000 homes regenerating the heart of Greater Manchester, with a new Metrolink stop connecting residents to jobs across the city;
Thamesmead, Greenwich: Up to 15,000 homes unlocking inaccessible riverside land in London, enabled by the planned Docklands Light Railway extension.
National Housing Bank
Alongside the New Towns consultation, the government has also announced that a new bank, the National Housing Bank, would launch on 1 April, backed with up to £16bn of financial capacity and with a mission to deliver some 500,000 new homes.
It will be chaired by Peter Vernon, deputy board chair of Homes England and chair of Grosvenor Hart Homes. Its chief executive is Simon Century, chief investment officer at Homes England and formerly managing director of Legal & General, where he oversaw the company’s foray into modular housing.
The government says the bank will unlock £53bn of private investment and give developers more financial stability to get half a million new homes built.
A public consultation on the proposed locations and draft planning policy is open until Monday 18 May.
The first of 6,500 consented homes going up at Brabazon New Town on the old Filton Airfield in north Bristol. Image: Rod Sweet
‘Model for sustainable growth and placemaking’
Responding to Brabazon’s selection, YTL UK group chief executive Colin Skellett said Brabazon’s inclusion in the new shortlist was a step toward it “becoming the most exciting multi-purpose destination in the south-west”.
He added: “With work already underway and hundreds of residents already occupying homes, Brabazon is fast becoming a model for sustainable growth and placemaking in the UK while also creating thousands of local jobs.”
YTL bought the 450-acre Filton Airfield site in 2015 and has since developed a plan for a comprehensive urban district with 6,500 consented homes – some 300 already occupied – and a high street with independent shops and restaurants.
Insurance giant Aviva secured naming rights for the 20,000-seat arena planned for Brabazon last month. It aims to hold 130 events a year, attracting 2 million people. Image courtesy of YTL
There will also be Grade A office and commercial spaces, big-name supermarkets and department stores, a 15-acre park with its own lake, three schools, student accommodation, and a 20,000-seat arena for which Aviva secured naming rights last month. It also has its own train station, to be called Bristol Brabazon – after Britain’s first commercial airliner developed at Filton after the second world war, which took off for its maiden flight there in 1949.
View out to the Brabazon Hangers, built 1946-49 for the assembly of the Bristol Brabazon, Britain's first commercial airliner after the second world war, which took off on its maiden flight from here in 1949. It will become the 20,000-capacity Aviva Arena. Image: Rod Sweet
The train station is due to open in September in time for the first students moving in, while the Aviva Arena and other main elements are due to start operating in 2028.
Seb Loyn, planning and development director for YTL Developments, told CM that Brabazon was a “project of national significance” because it outranked many other developments in terms of what it offered those moving in. Image: Rod Sweet
Just another sleepy suburb?
Seb Loyn, planning and development director for YTL Developments, told CM he believed Brabazon was a “project of national significance” because it outranked many other developments in terms of what it offered those moving in.
In any discussion of what a new town needs, he said: “Before too long, you’re getting into these really big-ticket items like, well, it definitely needs a train station, it definitely needs a new motorway junction, and we need to ensure there are major businesses operating, otherwise we’re going to create a sleepy suburb that people are commuting in and out of and it isn’t creating a real place.”
He concluded: “Brabazon has all of those components.”
He said it would be a new urban “nucleus” for an area that is now a suburban sprawl, despite its having two universities nearby, some 50,000 people working in high-tech manufacturing – Airbus, GKN Aerospace, and Boeing Defence are next door – and the highest productivity measured by gross value added per hour outside London.
