£3.7 million confirmed to fund five new garden towns across England
New garden towns will provide up to 64,000 much needed homes in five locations across England from Hertfordshire to Gloucestershire, it has been confirmed.
The locally led new communities will receive a share of £3.7 million of funding to fast track specialist survey work and planning works necessary for each new town’s development.
The funds will be available to councils to help to deliver the homes and infrastructure needed for both neighbouring communities and future residents who will call the new town home. This includes specialist survey work and planning applications.
They are 15,000 homes in Grazeley Garden Settlement, 11,000 for the Hemel Garden Communities, 18,500 in the Easton Park Garden Community, North Uttlesford Garden Community and West of Braintree Garden Community, as well as 10,195 in Tewkesbury Ashchurch Garden Community, and 10,000 in Meecebrook, Stafford.
The five are the successful recipients after councils and groups from around the country submitted more than 100 ambitious proposals. Those taken forward receive an initial £750,000 to help develop plans for vibrant, thriving settlements where people can live, work and raise families.
‘These new towns will not only provide homes for families, but will be vibrant communities where everyone, including neighbouring communities can benefit from new infrastructure, leaving a legacy for future generations to be proud of,’ said Housing Minister Kit Malthouse.
‘I congratulate these councils who have put forward ambitious proposals, which will build many thousands of high quality homes, and am pleased to support them as they work to make these plans a reality,’ he added.
Garden communities can take the form of new villages, towns or cities and have the potential to deliver well-designed homes at an increased scale, boosting the local economy and creating new jobs.
The five new schemes will join the 23 existing garden communities the Government is currently supporting. A garden town is defined as a development of more than 10,000 homes.
Including a project in the garden communities programme does not prejudice or presuppose the planning system as the appropriate planning processes will still need to be followed.
In addition to the five new garden town schemes, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will also shortly announce further successful bids, including garden villages submitted prior to the November 2018 deadline.
