Some new towns in England to be built on greenfield sites, housing minister says – UK politics live | Politics

Good morning. At PMQs yesterday Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said that 80 years ago “British, Canadian and American soldiers were fighting shoulder to shoulder to defeat fascists” but that President Trump “seems to have forgotten all that” as he takes foreign policy decision.

It turns out that Davey was wrong. Trump has a very strong sense of who was on America’s side during world war two. “We both reflected on the Great History of our Nations, and the fact that we fought so successfully together in World War II, remembering, that Russia lost tens of millions of people,” Trump said yesterday, in his readout of his call with President Putin.

That was the call with ominious implications for Ukraine, as the America in effect called time on the era when it used to guarantee the security of western Europe. Keir Starmer is doing a visit this morning and, as normal for these events, he is expected to take brief questions from broadcasters on the main stories of the day. Stories don’t get any more “main” than this one.

We will be covering the Starmer interviews here, but this is primarily an international story and Jakub Krupa is leading the coverage of this on his Europe live blog.

Starmer may also be asked about the economy, and the growth figures out this morning, showing that the economy grew by a modest 0.1% in the final quarter of 2024. That’s not gangbusters territory, but it is an improvement on the previous quarter, when the economy was flat. There were fears they economy might even shrink in the final three months of the year.

Graeme Wearden is leading on this on his business live blog.

There is a slight chance that Starmer may even be asked a question about the government’s plans for new towns, which is supposedly the reason for the visit. As Pippar Crerar reports, the government is announcing that up to 12 new towns will be under construction in England by the next election after 100 potential locations were identified for them.

Full details of the announcement are here. Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, has been giving interviews about the plans this morning, and he told Sky News that some of the new towns will be build on greenfield sites.

Asked whether some of the construction would be on greenfield land, Pennycook replied:

There will be some, I’m sure, recommended standalone greenfield sites.

There will be a number of other, what are called urban extensions, but big expansions of existing towns and cities where that is appropriate.

There’s got to be sustainable places, as I say, they’ve got to be well-connected, well-designed.

We’ll see what the taskforce recommend in its final report in the summer … ministers will then take the final decision on which ones go forward.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: NHS England publishes its monthly performance figures.

9.30am: Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

Morning: Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner are on a visit in the south-east England to promote the government’s plans for new towns.

Morning: David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has a meeting in London with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Also, Nato defence ministers are meeting in Brussels today. John Healey is there for the UK and he is due to speak to reporters this afternoon.

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