• Beyond locally-set targets: Garden Cities are a mechanism to increase the supply of housing. Our research reveals that many Local Authorities are failing to plan adequately for need. Even if planning targets are achieved, southern England faces a shortfall of 160,000 homes over the next five years. Therefore, if Garden Cities are to make a difference, they should be seen as part of the answer, in addition to existing plans for urban extensions and the homes already allocated in the local plans.
• London overspill: Plans for new settlements need to consider the acute housing shortage in the capital. Value growth in London has priced out large numbers of households. Many will leave the capital in search of better value, placing added pressure in the property markets with the strongest migration links to the city. High quality new settlements, built along public transport links to major cities or where there are real plans in place for its provision, would relieve some of the pressure.
• Plans must be larger-than-local: The case for Garden Cities needs to be made on behalf of future generations. The designation process requires more than a local planning framework and rests on meeting wider than local needs. The creation of new settlements will not help solve the housing crisis unless locally-set targets add up to the latest estimates for housing requirement of 240,000 new homes a year in England.
• New Town Development Corporations: These could be the vehicle that helps deliver a long-term vision and reduce risk to investors and developers. NTDCs could create a planning framework, borrow money to fund infrastructure, share land value uplift with the private sector and instigate compulsory purchase where necessary to complete land assembly.
• Land value uplift: We need to encourage landowners to bring forward sites at a price that ensures schemes are deliverable. Two possible and potentially complementary routes include a national competition and for sites to come forward and the creation of contracts through which landowners retain an equity share in the project.
• Garden Cities are only part of the solution: There is no single solution to this housing crisis. Savills believes that the creation of new Garden Cities is not a panacea but a piece in a much bigger jigsaw.
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