Garden Villages: Locations Of First 14 Announced

England's first garden villages have been proposed for 14 sites spread across the country from Cornwall to Cumbria, the government has announced. Ministers have lent their support to 14 planned developments which will each deliver between 1,500 and 10,000 properties and establish new villages. The new garden villages could provide 48,000 homes, the government says. Larger garden towns in Buckinghamshire, Somerset and the Essex-Hertfordshire border were also approved. The developments will be distinct new places, with their own community facilities, rather than extensions to existing urban areas, the government said. Read more on the CLG website.

Empowering Localism to Solve the Housing Crisis

More than 1 million new homes could be built over the next decade if each of the 353 councils in England built just one garden village of 3,000 new houses, according to a new report by Policy Exchange. The garden village concept is being proposed as an alternative to the edge of town development and as a variant of the garden city.  Local opposition to development can be overcome by devolving powers to set up new garden villages from Whitehall to councils, the report says. If councils do agree to build new garden villages sufficient to meet their housing need, they would, as a quid pro, be allowed to rule out having developments around existing communities forced on them through appeal. Read more on the Policy Exchange website.