Longs for new start in quite a long time (6)
I believe the answer is:
yearns
'longs for' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'a long time' is the wordplay.
'a long' becomes 'yearn' (I've seen this before).
'time' becomes 's' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'yearn'+'s'='YEARNS'
'new start in quite' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for yearns that I've seen before include "'Craves, longs for (6)'" , "Longs for, pines" , "'Hankers, longs (6)'" , "Craves, longs intensely" , "Desires strongly" .)