Ministers said they would confirm Tempsford's 40,000 homes by summer. Peers say no site is chosen yet, and a Bedford college warned them of a builder shortage.

The government has still not confirmed whether Tempsford will become a new town, months after it said it would. A House of Lords committee says the final choice of sites “has yet to take place”, and it warns ministers to commit fully to the programme or give it up.

Tempsford is the largest of the seven locations ministers proposed in March, at up to 40,000 homes around a new East West Rail station. The village is in Central Bedfordshire, about eight miles north east of Bedford town centre and three miles north of Sandy.

The Built Environment Committee published its report, New Towns: Commit and Build, on Thursday 15 October. It is the third and last report of the committee’s inquiry into the programme.

Where Tempsford stands

The timeline so far, from the government’s own announcements:

  • 28 September 2025: an independent New Towns Taskforce recommended 12 locations. The government said that, at that stage, Tempsford, Crews Hill and Leeds South Bank looked “most promising” (MHCLG).
  • 23 March 2026: ministers proposed seven locations, with Tempsford first on the list at up to 40,000 homes.
  • 19 May 2026: the consultation on the draft programme closed. The government said it intended to “confirm the New Town programme locations later in summer 2026”.

That confirmation has not come. The committee’s report says the government is approaching two and a half years in office, and that “construction, or even the final selection of new towns locations, are yet to take place”.

What the peers want

The report names five things it says are slowing the programme down:

  • the UK makes fewer building materials than it used to, so supply chains are exposed to shocks abroad
  • water and power companies lack spare capacity to serve new towns
  • building them needs “significant and unprecedented growth” in the construction workforce
  • new building technology is not being designed in early enough
  • the industry wants firm money and timetables before it commits

Its sharpest recommendation is about speed. The committee wants a development corporation, or a similar delivery body, set up for each new town within three months of the final choice of sites.

It also puts the choice to ministers plainly. The programme is one “the Government must pursue relentlessly… or one that they should give up on”. Doing it in a “half-hearted and desultory manner would lead to failure”, the report says.

The committee notes that the housing minister told it the government remains committed to the programme. It wants that backed by funding and governance plans for each town.

A Bedford college’s warning on builders

The skills chapter of the report leans on evidence from The Bedford College Group, which runs Bedford College and campuses across Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire. Sam Egan, the group’s director of construction, gave evidence in person, and the college sent a written submission in July.

According to the report, Ms Egan told peers that:

  • some construction employers complain that students are not “site ready” when they finish their courses
  • bricklaying is mostly taught indoors, but “in real life it is cold outside”
  • poorer facilities and fewer hands-on experiences come partly from a lack of funding
  • college places are often oversubscribed, but construction teaching posts are hard to fill because the pay is low next to similar jobs in the industry
  • colleges are starting to teach newer building methods, though that is very expensive to invest in

The college’s written evidence says around 47% of construction apprentices do not finish their programme. The committee also heard from the Construction Products Association that the drop-out rate for construction trainees is 50% for men and 70% for women.

The college asked for simpler qualifications, more site placements and more help for small firms to take on apprentices. The committee recommends a national review of non-degree construction training and apprenticeships, including why so many people drop out.

What it means for you

If you live in Sandy, Tempsford, Everton or the villages near the A1, there is still no confirmed new town, no delivery body and no final boundary. Nothing in the Lords report changes that. It is advice to ministers, who do not have to accept it, although the government usually replies to Lords committee reports within two months.

On the Bedford side, the borough’s draft Local Plan 2050 says the new plan will define how much of the borough could fall inside the new town, which straddles the boundary with Central Bedfordshire. That consultation is open until 23 November; our Local Plan 2050 report explains how to respond. Planning applications across the borough are tracked on our Bedford planning page.

For anyone thinking about a construction course, the evidence is a reminder that the work will be there if the towns are built. Bedford College’s own warning is about finishing the course, not finding a place on it.

Sources