Joining up housing and transport

"Better places: new settlements with transport that works": report of study tours in Germany and the UK

The Government has a target of building 1.5m new homes in this Parliament, and some of these are to be delivered through a new generation of New Towns, similar those in Hertfordshire such as Hatfield and Stevenage. Transport connections to and within these new towns will be critical. In December 2025, the SMU organised a study tour of Freiburg in Germany, which is globally recognised as a centre of excellence in building new urban extensions, for officials from the Department for Transport and the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government. This was followed up in February 2026 with a visit to Cambridge and Harlow to look at UK practice. This report draws out lessons from these study tours and makes recommendations for the future.