Garden Towns Need Some Garden City Thinking to Succeed

Abstract

Much effort has been expended by successive governments in stimulating production by volume house builders, with modest success. Some estimate that planning permission has been granted for over 600,000 homes, though the number of actual housing starts, while up, hovers stubbornly around the 2008 figure. New Labour tried to change this by various stratagems: ‘modern methods of production,’ aimed at stimulating competition by introducing new entrants, and ‘eco towns’, new settlements bearing a green label. In the end both came to naught.