What is a garden city and where are garden villages and towns being built and why?
Housing Secretary Sajid Javid to approve as many as five new sites in the next few weeks
THE Government is set to approve the building of five new "garden villages", adding to the 14 already approved, as part of its so-called housing revolution.
As Housing Secretary Sajid Javid prepares to give the green light to at least two in the coming weeks, here's what we know about the new communities which would bring thousands of new homes.
Thousands of homes are expected to go up, linking the two world famous university cities as well as Milton Keynes.
Javid will give two towns the green light in the coming weeks then potentially push that up to three more.
The decision comes after funding for a new high-speed rail line and "expressway" for cars was agreed by ministers.
Why are they being built?
The ambitious scheme is designed to tackle the housing crisis by easing pressure on the UK's existing towns and cities.
Housing minister Gavin Barwell said: "Locally-led garden towns and villages have enormous potential to deliver the homes that communities need.
"New communities not only deliver homes, they also bring new jobs and facilities and a big boost to local economies."
Shaun Spiers, chief executive of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said the proposals would have to be closely monitored but could be the answer to the crisis.
He said: "Done well, with genuine local consent, garden villages and towns can help tackle the housing crisis.
Mr Spiers said "they can be preferable to what is currently happening in too many parts of the country".
By that he meant "poor quality developments plonked on the countryside, in the teeth of local opposition and in defiance of good planning principles".
Around 217,000 new homes were built last year and while that is double that of 2010, it is still well below the Government's target of 300,00 by 2025.
Where are the 14 existing garden villages?
The 14 new villages announced stretch from Cumbria in the north of England to Cornwall on the south-west coast.
There are also three bigger garden towns planned in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Taunton in Somerset and Hallow and Gilston on the Essex-Hertfordshire border.
Here are the locations for all of the new garden villages:
- Long Marston, Stratford-on-Avon
- Oxfordshire Cotswold, west Oxfordshire
- Deenethorpe, east Northamptonshire
- Culm, Mid Devon
- Welborne, near Fareham in Hampshire
- West Carclaze, Cornwall
- Dunton Hills, near Brentwood, Essex
- Spitalgate Heath, in South Kesteven District, Lincolnshire
- Halsnead, in Knowsley, Merseyside
- Longcross, Runnymede and Surrey Heath
- Bailrigg, Lancaster
- Infinity Garden Village, south Derbyshire
- St Cuthberts, near Carlisle
- North Cheshire, Cheshire East