Off the back of Wednesday's Budget announcement which signalled the Government’s support for developing new standalone settlements, DCLG has published a prospectus entitled Locally-Led Garden Villages, Towns and Cities.

The document invites expressions of interest from local authorities to identify proposals for 12 new Garden Villages by 31 July 2016 and new Garden Towns or Cities on a rolling basis.

There are a number of qualifying criteria, including;

- Proposals must be led by local authorities (developer involvement is encouraged);
- They should include 1,500 – 10,000 homes for a Garden Villages and 10,000+ homes for Garden Towns or Cities;.
- Delivery must include a discrete standalone settlement for Garden Villages only (Garden Towns and Cities can take the form of ‘transformational’ schemes);
- The local authority should have a clear vision on delivery, including infrastructure; and
- The new settlement should help meet strategic housing needs.

In return the Government will offer:

- Funding to develop proposals further (although local authorities should seek to deliver the settlements without significant public funding);
- Brokerage to resolve strategic issues;
- Reform of the New Towns Act to allow the formation of Development Corporations to deliver these schemes; and
- Planning reforms which will give greater ability to resist speculative residential planning applications.

For those of you who attended our New Settlements Breakfast Seminar on November 2015 this will be very familiar. Lord Taylor the author of ‘Garden Villages - Empowering Localism to Solve the Housing Crisis’ spoke about his proposal to bring forward a new generation of Garden Villages. This report appears to be forming the basis of Government policy on encouraging a whole range of new smaller standalone settlements.

It appears that some elements of the original proposal, such as increasing the level of compensation paid for land which has been compulsorily purchased are unlikely to be progressed. Some radical proposals remain and the prospectus makes reference to Lord Taylor’s recommendation of offering local authority’s immunity from speculative planning appeals. This is likely to be a real draw for many local authorities and could fundamentally alter the planning policy landscape if it’s brought forward.

Please contact Jamie Sullivan, or your usual Iceni contact if you have any questions relating to this.