Can New Towns Become Joy Towns?
Published: 5 November 2026
Explainer
In a recent poll of residents in England’s post-war new towns, only 4% spontaneously described their town as ‘nice’. Prof Rebecca Madgin explains why buildings can alter our mood and wellbeing.
In a recent poll of residents in England’s post-war new towns, conducted by the Heatherwick Studio’s Humanise campaign, only 4% spontaneously described their town as ‘nice’. For many, previous generations of new towns have left residents uninspired and disconnected from their everyday surroundings.
People want the next generation to do better. Eight in ten respondents said future new towns should include buildings that inspire pride, create belonging and bring joy.
‘Nice’, ‘pride’, ‘belonging’ and ‘joy’ may sound like soft words, but they are not frivolous extras. They speak to something profoundly human: our need to form meaningful relationships with the places where we live, work and play. Evidence from neuroscience, history, geography and environmental psychology shows that how places look and feel shapes our sense of self, strengthens social cohesion and influences outcomes from individual wellbeing to wider economic prosperity.
Academic evidence matters, but this is also something each of us instinctively knows. How do you feel walking down a high street lined with boarded-up shops, vacant sites and once-proud buildings in visible decline? Which places draw you back time and again? Why do some put you at ease while others make you anxious?t
We often recognise the depth of our attachment only when something is lost. A treasured pub closes, a fire guts a cherished cinema or a vacant site appears, and suddenly we realise that we have formed emotional relationships with the places that matter to us.
Public demand for change is clear. Research commissioned by Humanise found that 76% of people in the UK believe the way buildings look affects mental health, while 69% agree that we should invest in buildings that make people feel good as they pass them.
At a time when the UK Government is focused on delivering good growth and tackling the housing crisis, we can do more than meet targets and deliver ‘units’. People want homes and places that bring joy, foster belonging and support everyday life. And regeneration must do more than repair the physical fabric of a place. It must improve people’s experience of living there.
Delivering Humanised Places, a new partnership between the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, the University of Glasgow and Heatherwick Studio’s Humanise initiative, aims to build the evidence and practical tools needed to deliver such places at scale. It will review how patterns, materials and other aspects of building design affect socioeconomic outcomes, including health and wellbeing. It will also examine viability, investment, capital and technology across the development cycle, in both new developments and the regeneration of existing places.
None of this can, or should, happen without a public conversation about how places look and feel. We want the next poll of residents in the new generation of new towns, to produce a very different answer. If we create places that people value and feel connected to, the evidence suggests we can become a happier, healthier and wealthier nation.
Rebecca Madgin is Professor of Urban Studies at the University of Glasgow and Programme Director for the UKRI/Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Place-Based Research Programme and Academic Lead for Delivering Humanised Places.
This article first appeared in The Times Thunderer on 30 October, 2026.
First published: 5 November 2026