Planners tell politicians to stop obstructing new garden cities

Some of Britain's most prestigious urban planners and housing campaigners have called on politicians to stop blocking new garden cities which, they say, could help solve the housing shortage.

The finalists for last year's Wolfson Economics Prize - Shelter, the housing charity, Urbed, urban planning advisers, Barton Willmore town planners, Wei Yang & Partners, an urban design consultancy, and Chris Blundell, a director of the social landlord Golding Homes - say that the UK needs a royal commission to depoliticise the planning and development of new settlements.

Britain is building around 160,000 homes a year, but experts agree that the country needs between 200,000 and 300,000. Political support is widespread for new garden cities along the lines of the post-second world war new towns, but very few have been built in the past two decades.

Ebbsfleet in Kent was first identified as the location for a garden city of 10,000 homes in the late 1990s. Only a few hundred houses have materialised so far.

Its developer, the FTSE 100-listed Land Securities, says it needs more public money to make faster progress.

Bicester in Oxfordshire was announced last year as the location for a second garden city but plans are still at an early stage.

A government prospectus setting out ways to create garden cities was delayed several times in 2013 amid a coalition argument about locations.

Public debate about the merits of garden cities has focused on this issue of locations, rather than on the fundamental problems, the finalists said in their joint report.

Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said the idea was "constantly bandied around by politicians" but "we have yet to see enough real evidence of turning this statement into a reality".

"All we've seen so far are piecemeal schemes and broad promises - now is the time for a big bold plan that can fix the housing shortage once and for all," he said.

A royal commission should decide in an impartial way where new garden cities should be located, and new development bodies should have the power to compulsorily purchase any necessary land, their report recommended. This would help to stop landowners from making excessive profits and instead could share the proceeds with the local community once land is sold on to developers, garnering support for new housebuilding, they said.

The current system under which landowners get the benefit from any increase in the value of their land encourages them to hold out for higher prices when selling to developers, "encouraging land speculation".

The government should strengthen existing laws on forcibly taking ownership of land to "prevent landowners from holding out", the report says.

Nick Falk and David Rudlin from Urbed, winners of the Wolfson prize, while backing the call to politicians, have also argued that, instead of creating new settlements, the government should focus on increasing the size of existing towns, including those new towns which, they said, were too small to be economically successful.

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