Clegg to Promise 45,000 Homes across Three Garden Cities

The government will pledge to build up to three new garden cities with at least 15,000 homes each. Councils will be invited to bid to build the developments from an existing £2.4bn government fund, made available up to 2020.  Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg will unveil the policy and publish a prospectus inviting bids from councils. Government officials said the developments would not be imposed on communities and must have local support, full backing from councils, good transport links and be commercially viable. The government plans to work with the two or three areas that submit the strongest expressions of interest to help them develop their proposals, including with planning and design. Read more on the Building website.