On 15th August, Communities Secretary, Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP, launched a new garden communities programme aiming to create high-quality homes and green spaces , expanding on Government’s plans for more locally-led developments. English Councils and private developers who have secured support from local authorities can apply for a place on the programme, which is based on an idea first proposed by Ebenezer Howard in the late 19th century.
This announcement was met with some concern towards its execution, perhaps most notably from CPRE [Alliance member]. In an article they point out that there is no reference in the proposal to ‘making effective use of land’ from section 11 of the revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which requires councils to make ‘as much use as possible’ of brownfield sites , which The CPRE consider this disappointing as section 11 ‘seems to have been inserted as a direct response to the aimless squandering of our limited supply of land since the 2012 NPPF’, CPRE also Consider that the proposals fail to realise ‘Ebenezer Howard’s original vision for garden cities… of sustainable, walkable communities that used land well’ whereas the Government’s garden communities prospectus ‘makes no mention of density or effective use of land as a criteria to assess proposals seeking government support – beyond belief for a document promoting a form of development so closely linked to the density and walkability of the communities they seek to design… every time we see a proposal for a ‘garden community’, we should challenge what it is that is being proposed, and ask whether someone reading Ebenezer Howard’s ‘Garden cities of to-morrow’ would recognise it’.
To access the prospectus please click here.