Remember that bit in Trainspotting when Ewan MacGregor’s Renton overdoses, then is left outside on the road by his heroin dealer, Mother Superior? Renton seems blissful, yet all around him as he lies in the gutter, we see a landscape fashioned in hell: derelict tenements, empty streets, broken glass, and open spaces where homes, shops and a vibrant civic culture surely once thrived.

That place is Teucharhill in Govan, Glasgow but the scene could have been filmed in any number of locations within the city’s boundaries. Today, nearly 30 years since the film of the book’s release, those grim dwellings may be long gone, but in Glasgow’s industrial neighbourhoods little has been built to replace them. Derelict land in the city still flourishes, with close to 10 million square metres on the Vacant & Derelict Land register (in 2022). Yet Glasgow’s forgotten townscapes - like the former steel town Possilpark with its gridiron plan or the former mining village of Robroyston now hemmed in by the M8 motorway - are exactly where we should be building the first of Angela Reyner’s new towns.

Maybe you’re already laughing. No, no, no - new towns should be built where people want to live, where the jobs are, where London is within easy reach. And if you’ve been reading the press, I don’t blame you. Most new town proposals are in southern England.

But let’s be frank: Britain doesn’t need new towns. It needs new thinking about towns. And that starts with reimagining our cities. Instead of tearing up our countryside for a nouveau Milton Keynes, or clinging to the PR-friendly ‘grey belt’ - a term invented to make developers feel better about paving over fields - why not use the vast, empty spaces within cities crying out for reinvention?

Add in Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Birmingham and the opportunity is huge. These cities already have transport networks, direct London links, airports, universities, and easy access to the countryside. They don’t need roads, schools, and sewage systems built from scratch. The bones of vital urban living are already in place.

As Centre for Cities chief exec Andrew Carter recently wrote, Britain’s biggest regional cities underperform compared to their European counterparts. “From labour market and density perspectives they function more like small and mid-sized cities,” he argues. Unlike in the USA, France and Germany, our second-tier cities punch well below their weight - dragging down the economy with them.

Part of that is down to a lack of financial autonomy but as Carter says, a dual-track approach to new town development could rebalance Britain’s economy: yes, we need more homes in the overheated southeast. But we also need bold, high-density urban renewal in Glasgow, Liverpool, and beyond - creating jobs where people already live, rather than forcing migration south.

Who dares to disagree? Anything less is just ‘managed decline’ by another name - the same strategy Thatcher’s government secretly pursued in the 1980s as Liverpool rioted and Glasgow rejected the Poll Tax. The consequences of that neglect are still felt today.

So why are we still throwing money at satellite towns when the solution is staring us in the face? We don’t need urban bolt-ons - we need urban reinvention. It’s an approach we’re using ourselves at Park Royal with Barratt and Asda: we’re designing a new town centre in an underused part of the West London industrial estate, that will provide 1500 affordable homes as well as retail, workspace and leisure uses.

A new town inside a city isn’t just about housing. It’s about economic renewal, social mobility, and a Britain that finally makes the most of all of its cities - not just the ones a stone’s throw from London.