Sunday Times approves Nansledan 10 years on

On 28 September 2025 The Sunday Times published a piece by Senior Property Writer, Hugh Graham, praising the success of Nansledan. He acknowledged that, like Poundbury, the town has elicited a mixed response from the critics, but it hasn’t stopped others, including Sir Keir Starmer, from praising it, so much so that the government wants to copy it for its 12 new towns.

He noted that Nansledan has also “caught the attention of the Americans, receiving the Gindroz Award for Excellence in Affordable Housing from the New York-based Institute of Classical Architecture & Art in 2025. And contrary to the perception that the King’s model towns are havens for posh retired people, 30 per cent of the housing in Nansledan is classed as affordable, and in July builders broke ground on 24 homes to provide temporary accommodation for young homeless people”.

Graham writes that when he first visited Nansledan, “it felt like a film set; the streets lacked bustle. Last week I returned… I asked its master planner, the architect Hugh Petter, to show me around.

“My first impression… is that it’s slowly coming to life. In 2019, 230 of a planned 4,000 homes had been built on the 540-acre site; there was a primary school, too, but only a handful of shops. Today there are 882 houses and 40 businesses, as well as a nursery school, and 2,000 residents. I hear a happy babble from the nursery school playground, which has a traditional clock tower and an antique bell. In 2019 tumbleweed rolled down the dead-end high street, but today there’s a steady flow of traffic.

“A game-changer was the opening of a stone bridge in May, designed in a traditional Victorian style by Petter…

“Business has picked up at Sabzi, a Middle Eastern deli on the high street, since the opening of the bridge, according to its owner, Kate Attlee – on my visit, on a Tuesday, the shop is humming. As opposed to the older stereotype associated with Poundbury, all walks of life are here, from lifeguards to mums with prams.”

Graham notes the mix of shops, the construction of the Market Hall to showcase Cornwall’s food producers, and a Tesco supermarket are all further signs that the town is flourishing and living up to its walkability credentials.

He admires the “design tricks to calm all the new traffic: the streets are narrow and higgledy-piggledy, with tight corners and other obstacles that force cars to slow down...To prevent the rear courtyards becoming sites of antisocial behaviour, there are flats above the garages, which broadens the demographic to younger buyers…”

Although gardens are small and houses are sited “right up against the pavements… [this] layout increases housing density and is designed to encourage people to get out of their houses. In Nansledan the wealth of green space amounts to 180 football pitches; this includes allotments, a community orchard and a wildflower meadow…

“To make the streets prettier, gas and electric meters are banished to rear courtyards. As are bin stores. Satellite dishes are banned, as are holiday lets, to prevent a transient feel. Permission is required to repaint your house and there’s a set list of colours. Environment shapes behaviour, Petter tells me: ‘Some people say, why would I buy a house there? It’s my house, I can paint it the colour I want. But the opposite is true. People say, I choose to buy a house here, because I know it’s going to be a nice place for ever. People make an effort to keep the environment clean and tidy, and take pride in it.’

“That pride also applies to social-housing tenants – in Nansledan affordable homes are integrated with private houses, and look identical. They’re not relegated to a ghetto, so tenants enjoy the same beautiful public realm. ‘If you feel part of it, you take care of it better,’ Petter says.”

Alongside praise for the development the article does point out stumbling blocks which are still to be overcome: “Nansledan’s picture-perfect atmosphere may soon face a test. The 24 homes that will provide temporary accommodation for the homeless will be ready for occupation in 2026. Residents will stay roughly 12 months while getting vocational training and volunteering locally, to improve their job prospects. At a recent town hall meeting, most Nansledan residents were supportive” but some said they were concerned about the type of person it would attract. Henry Meacock, the chief executive of St Petrocs, the homelessness charity partnering with the Duchy of Cornwall is keen to “raise awareness and portray positivity on how homelessness can be ended. People are attracted to that. But you always get a minority that don’t [like it].”

As for mistakes, “one flaw is the lack of street trees. Petter says the harsh Atlantic winds made it difficult for them to survive initially, but adds that all the recent buildings are creating a windbreak, which will allow new ones to grow. He has also reversed the usual planning sequence: normally engineers dig underground cabling trenches first and trees get the leftover spots; now the trees will be designed in first”.

Graham’s conclusion is that “after a day in Nansledan I don’t need convincing it’s an ideal template for future new towns. But I remain sceptical that volume house builders, which are all about short-term profits and uniformity, will make the long-term investments such towns require.

“Petter says the answer is to ‘broaden the gene pool’, to encourage more small housebuilders back into the market — he is lobbying the government to make planning rules easier for them, and trying to teach landowners about the King’s Foundation’s ‘Building a Legacy’ approach to development… ‘It’s about building value over time. If you go about things in a different way, you get better social outcomes, better long-term financial outcomes, better health and wellbeing, and better environmental stuff. Nansledan shows it’s possible to do these things. I think over time volume housebuilders will start to question what they’re doing. I want to start a revolution in Britain.’”