A new government report suggests that “garden cities” could benefit the public purse and protect the nation’s green spaces at the same time.

The ‘Creating Garden Cities and Suburbs Today’ paper proposes that public sector land is released to communities so that they can demonstrate sustainable-building principles.

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Sustainable-building principles

As well as showcasing  higher quality, greener housing initiatives – which could include the innovative use of materials such as rainscreen cladding – the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) would like to see around 40 per cent of released land reserved strictly for green space, reports planningresource.co.uk.

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Land should be sold at a knock-down price as it is in the public’s interest to take advantage of the opportunity, the report suggested.

“This would open up the prospect of delivering high-quality communities, with, for example, a meaningful proportion of decent social and affordable housing and custom/self-build plots,” it added.

Places which will stand the test of time

Robin Hoyles, group land and planning director at Crest Nicholson (as well as an advocate of the programme), said that the disparity between housebuilding levels in relation to the booming population means that there is an “urgent” need for schemes such as this.

“The population is growing at its fastest rate for fifty years and yet housebuilding is at its lowest level since the 1920s, creating a very real and urgent demand,” he said, independent.co.uk reports.

“With such strong references to large scale development and garden city principles emerging in the coalition government’s policies, we must seize the opportunity to deliver high quality, well-designed places which will stand the test of time.”