By A £9 million cash injection has been announced by the government to speed up the locally-led building of new garden towns and villages across the country.
The Garden Communities project, as it is called, is set to deliver around 200,000 properties by 2050. The latest funding will go towards getting 21 specific sites to get them ready for development.
The government project aims to assist councils in delivering modern and well-designed homes built on large sites, with funding contributing to the master-planning process and technical studies.
Work has already begun on 10,000 properties across the country in garden towns and villages, with 36,000 expected to be underway or completed by 2022.
Kit Malthouse, housing minister, commented: “We have not built enough homes in this country for the last three decades, and we are turning that around as we work towards our target to build 300,000 properties a year by the mid-2020s.”
“This £9 million funding boost is giving councils the support and cash injection they need so they can finish planning new developments and get diggers on site.”
He also said that the developments being funded include a 2,000 home site for custom and self-builders in Bicester, which is situated on land purchased by the council from the Ministry of Defence.
Also, funded developments in Basingstoke, Didcot, Taunton, Harlow-Gilston and across Northamptonshire have already begun and are already in their first phase of developments, according to Malthouse.
The funding will be administered by Homes England, the non-departmental public body that funds new affordable housing in England.
A move towards integrated communities
The government’s efforts to build new homes in garden towns and villages forms part of an overall strategy to improve the home building process in the UK and move towards integrated communities that cater to everyone.
The government’s recently published Integrated Communities Action Plan outlines its desire to create better-integrated communities and a stronger society based on the common themes that bind people and places together.
James Brokenshire, housing and communities minister, has specifically outlined the government’s next steps to deliver the vision of the Integrated Communities Strategy green paper in a recent press release on the subject.
This will create stronger, more confident and integrated communities, where people, whatever their background, can live, work, learn and socialise together, based on shared rights, responsibilities and opportunities, according to Brokenshire.
He also mentioned the need for confident and well-integrated communities in post-Brexit Britain. Also, he referenced the need to help immigrants integrate into their communities with a combined approach of practical information to help them “meet, mix and build social connections with neighbours and the wider community”.
Other such efforts to improve integration include the publishing of a new Community Guide to Action, ensuring that communities across the country, have access to the information and advice they need to improve their local area.
Also, the government will work in partnership with 5 Integration Areas to develop bespoke local integration strategies that aims to include more marginalised women in work opportunities.
A new approach
The government also plans to support refugees, empower faith leaders and boost English language skills and awareness of mental health issues in communities as part of its Action Plan, which is backed by £50 million of funding from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and additional funding from other government departments as they develop and implement their own commitments to build integrated communities.
James Brokenshire, communities secretary, said: “We are a successful, diverse democracy – open, tolerant and welcoming. These characteristics are as British as queuing and talking about the weather.
“However, we cannot ignore the fact that too many places across the country have divided, the benefits and opportunities our great country offers are not always felt by everyone equally.
“Our new action plan charts a course for how we will engage and work with communities to bring people together in recognition that there is more that binds than divides us. And as we embark on a new future outside the European Union, we need to ensure that everyone, whatever their background, has access to the same opportunities.”
He also added: “Recognising that integration challenges are not uniform throughout the country the government has also been working in partnership with 5 Integration Areas (Blackburn with Darwen; Bradford; Peterborough; Walsall and Waltham Forest) to develop local integration plans.
“This approach is making good progress supporting partners like local authorities, voluntary organisations, local employers, schools and faith organisations to identify their priorities and the most effective ways to address them.
“Through this place-based programme, the government is focused on testing what works in practice to promote integration and on putting processes in place for sharing learning more widely,” said Brokenshire.
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