Government hands nearly £4m to successful bidders who will build up to 64,000 homes

Garden towns

The government is investing nearly £4m in surveying and planning work for five new proposed garden towns which could provide up to 64,000 new homes across England.

Councils and other bidding groups submitted more than 100 proposals and the five who progressed received £750,000 to further develop their plans.

The five successful bidders (see below) will each receive a share of £3.7m to fast-track specialist work which the government said would speed up the delivery of homes and infrastructure in their proposed developments.

The latest schemes will join 23 existing garden communities being supported by ministers.

Kit Malthouse, housing minister, said the proposals submitted by councils had been “ambitious” and would lead to the construction of “many thousands of homes”.

Last month the government announced £9m would be spent to speed up the locally-led building of new garden towns and villages across the country.

The Garden Communities project is expected to deliver 200,000 properties on large sites by 2050.

Ministers said the £9m would help get 21 sites ready for development.

The government regards a garden town as being a development comprising more than 10,000 homes.

The five successful bids are:

  • Grazeley Garden Settlement, delivering up to 15,000 homes
  • Hemel Garden Communities, delivering up to 11,000 homes
  • Easton Park Garden Community, North Uttlesford Garden Community and West of Braintree Garden Community, an opportunity to deliver up to 18,500 homes
  • Tewkesbury Ashchurch Garden Community, delivering up to 10,195 homes
  • Meecebrook, in the north of Stafford borough, delivering around 10,000 homes

Source: MHCLG

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