It says that there is genuine enthusiasm and ambition for growth in communities across the country, but new developments must be well designed, and bring together high quality homes, jobs, and green spaces in communities where people want to live raise their children.
Ministers believe these locally led developments will play a crucial role in delivering the number of new homes the country needs, but it is vital that they are not imposed from above and the government is inviting bids for the £1 billion on offer for local housing schemes of over 1,500 homes which have their plans in place but need assistance to get the development off the ground.
The funding will unlock up to 250,000 new homes between 2015 and 2020, and provide a springboard for successful bidders who also want to deliver locally led garden cities.
Investment will be provided through the local infrastructure fund, which is already accelerating development of 69,000 homes in areas such as Cranbrook in Devon, and Wokingham in Berkshire.
‘Garden cities are communities where future generations will live, work, have children, grow up and grow old. The new garden cities prospectus calls for local areas to submit their plans for garden cities that will provide affordable homes, good schools, and jobs for the next generation, while at the same time preserving the countryside. This is a call to arms for visionaries in local areas in need of housing to put forward radical and ambitious proposals to develop their own garden cities,’ said Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
The government wants the new garden cities to be locally led, but planning such a complex project will be a challenge for any community, so local areas will be offered support to help deliver their ambitions.
Ministers will welcome proposals that reuse brownfield sites that have been previously developed, provided that they are not of high environmental value. Proposals should also have the support of the local council, including at district and county level in two tier areas.
The package of support from the government for locally led garden settlements could includes assistant with planning consent and support and some funding for design, planning, and professional costs of developing a proposal for a new garden settlement.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) welcomed the publication of the garden cities prospectus and the request by government for local authorities to come forward and bid.
‘RICS has long called for an investors’ prospectus for garden cities, which we welcome today. However, sustainable community growth needs to happen across the whole of the UK and we need a more ambitious approach than 15,000 new homes at a time, if supply is going to meet demand,’ said Jeremy Blackburn, RICS head of UK policy.
‘Investors, communities and developers need greater confidence that government has a longer term political vision for garden cities and wider economic growth although we recognise that this announcement provides further clarity,’ he explained.
‘The role of property professionals will now be key to all parts of the process, not least in making these new development corporations function efficiently and effectively. Locally led plans for garden cities will also lend legitimacy to development and help de-risk the roll out of the initiative,’ he pointed out.
But he added that further details need to be clarified, particularly how strategic housing need, infrastructure and localism will be balanced. ‘New settlements will need both a sense of place and economic functionality that is of a different order to the large sites programme. Applications for garden cities will need to be closely scrutinised for viability on all levels, if this political consensus around a new generation of settlements is to work,’ he concluded.
But Jane Harris, managing director of campaigns for the Leonard Cheshire Disability charity said that it was disappointing that the prospectus makes no commitments to building disabled friendly homes.
One in six of us has a disability and there is a massive shortage of homes suitable for disabled people. The new Garden Cities should include homes for everyone for the long term. As we live longer, more and more of us will have a disability and need homes that, for example, have doors wide enough for wheelchairs and bathrooms downstairs,’ she explained.
‘We hope that the Deputy Prime Minister will make sure that a decent portion of the new homes built in Garden Cities will be disabled friendly. Otherwise we will look back and regret that we built homes that millions of us could never live in safely or comfortably,’ she added.
