Places · South East · Buckinghamshire
Façade & building consultants in Milton Keynes.
Britain's best-known new town, Milton Keynes is now a city with steel-and-glass landmarks, 1970s estates and its first generation of residential towers. McKay Turner Consulting provides façade condition surveys, defect and water ingress investigations, external wall fire risk appraisals, design reviews and expert witness work across Milton Keynes.
MILTON KEYNES 52.04° N, 0.76° W
A short history
A new town that became a city
Milton Keynes was planned in 1967 around older towns and villages. Its grid roads, parks and steel-and-glass centre made it a model for new towns.
- 1838
Wolverton
The railway works at Wolverton open, and a railway town grows up.
- 1939–45
Bletchley Park
Codebreakers work at Bletchley Park through the Second World War.
- 1967
New Town
Milton Keynes is designated a New Town, taking in Bletchley, Wolverton and Stony Stratford.
- 1970s
The grid
Grid roads, redways and estates are built across the new city.
- 1979
Shopping building
The steel-and-glass shopping building opens in Central Milton Keynes.
- 1982
Station
Milton Keynes Central station opens.
- 2022
City status
Milton Keynes is granted city status.
- 2025
First towers
A 33-storey build-to-rent tower is approved at Grafton Gate.
Architecture
What makes Milton Keynes's buildings distinctive
Milton Keynes has some of Britain's best late-modern architecture, in steel, glass, timber and brick. Much of it is now 40 to 50 years old.
Key styles
Old towns
Georgian coaching inns at Stony Stratford and Victorian railway terraces at Wolverton.
Late modernism
Steel-framed, glass-walled buildings such as the shopping building and the station.
New town estates
Experimental housing in timber, metal and render, and later brick.
Postmodern
Red-brick and mirrored-glass offices, and The Point cinema.
Business parks
Glazed and brick offices along the grid roads.
Towers
The first high-rise apartment towers in Central Milton Keynes.
Milton Keynes's material palette
Did you know?
The 1979 shopping building was listed Grade II in 2010, unusually young for a listed building.
The concrete cows, made in 1978, became the new city's best-known artwork.
Bletchley Park, now part of Milton Keynes, was home to the wartime codebreakers.
Typical building types
What Milton Keynes is built of today
Milton Keynes is mostly 50 years old or younger, but much of that stock is now reaching mid-life, and the centre is starting to grow upwards.
Offices
Glazed and brick offices from the 1970s onwards.
Where: Central Milton Keynes, business parks
New town estates
Housing from the 1970s and 80s.
Where: Netherfield, Fishermead, Eaglestone
Apartments & towers
New flats and planned towers.
Where: Central Milton Keynes, Campbell Park
Logistics
Large warehouses by the M1.
Where: Magna Park, Kingston, Wolverton
Retail & leisure
Shopping and leisure buildings.
Where: centre:mk, Midsummer Place, the Hub
Older towns
Georgian and Victorian streets.
Where: Stony Stratford, Wolverton, Bletchley
Schools & healthcare
Hospital, schools and university buildings.
Where: Milton Keynes University Hospital
Heritage
Listed modern and older buildings.
Where: Shopping building, Bletchley Park
Current construction trends
Where Milton Keynes is building now
The first residential towers and a long-term plan for growth are changing the shape of the city.
Grafton Gate
Galliford Try Investments has consent for a 302-home build-to-rent tower near the station, subject to Gateway 2.
MK City Plan 2050
The draft plan provides for about 60,000 homes to 2050, with a large share in and around the centre.
Affordable homes
The draft plan seeks at least 40% affordable housing on greenfield sites.
Tall buildings
A new tall building strategy for Central Milton Keynes sets out where towers can go.
Higher-risk buildings
Residential buildings of 18m or seven storeys and above, with at least two homes, must be registered with the Building Safety Regulator and have a safety case that covers their external walls.
Cladding Safety Scheme
Government funding for unsafe cladding on residential buildings over 11m in England. Every application starts with a PAS 9980 fire risk appraisal of the external walls.
How we help in Milton Keynes
Every era of building has its own risks
We match our inspections and advice to the age and construction of your building.
Older townsto c.1914
Weathered brick and stone, failed pointing and leaking roofs.
1970s late-modern buildingsc.1970–1985
Failing glazing seals, corroded steel, and leaking roofs and rooflights.
New town housingc.1970–1990
Decayed timber and metal cladding, and failing render.
Apartments and towersc.2000–today
Combustible cladding or insulation, missing cavity barriers and leaking balconies.
New buildtoday
Design and specification gaps, and workmanship on tall façades.
Watermans Reach, Oxford: a three-day intrusive survey from a boom lift across three waterside blocks, for a PAS 9980 appraisal of the external walls and timber balconies.
Read the Watermans Reach case study →FAQs
Façade services in Milton Keynes
Do you work in Milton Keynes?
Yes. We work across the UK from our base in the North West, including in Milton Keynes. A Director-level consultant leads every instruction from the first conversation to the final report.
Can you assess the external walls of residential buildings in Milton Keynes?
Yes. Our intrusive investigations confirm how the cladding, insulation and cavity barriers are actually built. We then assess the fire risk using PAS 9980, which is also the starting point for Cladding Safety Scheme applications.
Can you survey 1970s steel and glass buildings?
Yes. We inspect glazing, gaskets, steel frames and roofs close up, find the causes of leaks and decay, and set out repairs that respect the original design.
Which other services do you offer in Milton Keynes?
Façade condition surveys, defect and leak investigations, thermographic surveys, technical due diligence, façade design reviews and expert witness work in façade disputes.
Work with us
Own or manage a building in Milton Keynes?
We provide façade condition surveys, defect and water ingress investigations, external wall fire risk appraisals, design reviews and expert witness work in Milton Keynes and across Buckinghamshire.
Photographs: Magda Vrabetz and Kami Chu on Unsplash.