The houses are built on larger areas of land, where there is room for gardens and parks and other leisure facilities. Stevenage has become quite a large town itself, and there are individual neighbourhoods established in the town. Each has its own schools, both primary and secondary, as well as parks and recreational facilities. There is lots of space here and is considered by many people to be a better environment for children to grow up in, instead of the noisy, polluted and overcrowded surroundings of inner city London.
However, some people have criticisms to make against these new towns. They do not think that they have much character and are just rows of identical modern houses, which to a certain extent is true. Many people feel that historical value has been destroyed in these new areas, as there is nothing from the past. Some people feel that the nearby town of Hitchen has a more pleasant environment because there are buildings there that are up to 1000 years old, and this provides them with a sense of belonging and historical values. These built up older areas may look better, but prices and rates of rent are high. In the scruffy areas that have not been refurbished, it does not look as good, but provide cheap accommodation for small firms and businesses. In Stevenage, the commercial development has made its industry an example to other new towns in England.
Many firms are attracted to the new towns for these location factors, but few set up their headquarters here. When firms need to cut back on expenses, it is often these small firms in new towns that are closed down, leaving many people who worked there without a job. For this reason, most people have now got to work in the nearby city, and commute to work every day. This leaves the town empty by day, where most people are out at work, and then only busy at night.
The new towns attracted people of all ages, and are especially suitable for young families, but as soon as new people moved in, the towns no longer had enough amenities to cope with the growing population. There are crèches for mothers to leave their children in a safe environment during the day, and many new leisure facilities. To prevent these new towns growing at the rate of the other cities, green belts have been put in place around them.
In an ideal situation, many people think it would have been better for more towns built up slowly, not all in one development. This would also create unobvious boundaries between the old parts of the town and new developments. Generally, the new towns are a good solution for overcrowding of inner cities. The roads are designed to accommodate the volume of traffic in a modern town, not like the old cities.
