Development corporations

In the UK, a development corporation is an independent public body created by the government. They are normally used for long-term projects to regenerate or repurpose land in an area, or to build or extend a new town.

There are three types of development corporation in the UK. Mayoral development corporations (MDCs) must be established when a strategic authority mayor makes a valid request to the government. New Towns Act development corporations (NTDCs) and Urban Development Corporations (UDCs) can also be established by the government. The latter two types of corporation can be centrally-led or locally-led.

The briefing sets out the development corporations that exist in England as of June 2026, and the uses proposed for each of these types of corporation during the 2020s. It sets out the functions that can be provided to each type of development corporations, and includes a list of currently existing MDCs. It provides some information about the independent review of Teesworks, a joint venture involving the South Tees Development Corporation, in the early 2020s.

The briefing also provides information about the purposes and impacts of development corporations. It includes historical information about the use of NTDCs in the mid-20th century, and the use of UDCs in the 1980s. It provides some details of evaluations of the impacts of these development corporations.