The first ever garden villages, which have the potential to deliver more than 48,000 homes across England, have been given government backing.
In an expansion of the existing garden towns programme, these smaller projects of between 1,500 and 10,000 homes continue the government’s commitment to support locally-led development.
The 14 new garden villages – from Devon to Derbyshire, Cornwall to Cumbria – will have access to a £6 million fund over the next two financial years to support the delivery of these new projects.
This money will be used to unlock the full capacity of sites, providing funding for additional resources and expertise to accelerate development and avoid delays.
The government also announced its support for three new garden towns in Aylesbury, Taunton and Harlow & Gilston – and a further £1.4 million of funding to support their delivery.
Together with the seven garden towns already announced, these 17 new garden settlements have the combined potential to provide almost 200,000 new homes across the country.
This week also saw the government announce the first wave of 30 local authority partnerships to spearhead the development of starter homes on brownfield sites. These partnerships have been established under the government’s £1.2 billion Starter Homes Land Fund which supports the development of starter homes on sites across England.
The 14 new garden villages will have access to a £6 million fund over the next two financial years to support the delivery of these new projects.
New garden villages and towns
These developments will be distinct new places with their own community facilities, rather than extensions to existing urban areas. The 14 new garden villages are:
- Long Marston in Stratford-on-Avon
- Oxfordshire Cotswold in West Oxfordshire
- Deenethorpe in East Northants
- Culm in Mid Devon
- Welborne near Fareham in Hampshire
- West Carclaze in Cornwall
- Dunton Hills near Brentwood, Essex
- Spitalgate Heath in South Kesteven, Lincolnshire
- Halsnead in Knowsley, Merseyside
- Longcross in Runnymede and Surrey Heath
- Bailrigg in Lancaster
- Infinity Garden Village in South Derbyshire and Derby City area
- St Cuthberts near Carlisle City, Cumbria
- North Cheshire in Cheshire East
The three new garden towns are:
- Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
- Taunton, Somerset
- Harlow & Gilston, Essex and Hertfordshire
In addition to funding, the government will provide support in terms of expertise, brokerage and offer of new planning freedoms.
Due to the high level of expressions of interest submitted in July 2016, the government has made an additional £1 million available this year for further development of other garden village proposals.
The government may run a further call for expressions of interest in 2017 for other places with proposals for new garden villages.
A garden town is a development of more than 10,000 homes. Garden villages are smaller settlements of between 1,500 and 10,000 homes.
The new garden projects will also have access to infrastructure funding programmes across government, such as the new £2.3 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund announced as part of the Autumn Statement.
