TCPA calls for return to garden cities and garden suburbs principles

The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) is calling for the Garden Cities and Garden Suburbs principles of over a hundred years ago to be applied to new settlements, including eco-towns as well as to urban extensions, to provide the attractive and sustainable environments people want.

Says TCPA Chief Executive Gideon Amos: With our roots as the Garden City Association of 1899 the TCPA has been a reformist movement for over a hundred years – evidenced by our interest in fair shares in development and land value uplift; shared ownership of public open space; participative and entrepreneurial local governance; town and country planned together, and enhancement of the environment – and driven to assert the need to achieve sustainable communities.

'As we seek to deal with today’s dual challenges of unparalleled housing demand, driven by a crisis of affordability and demographic factors, and an urgent need to reduce our emissions from the built environment we can learn many lessons from the Garden Cities and Garden Suburbs of the past century.

'Most UK residents live in suburban housing, and 80 per cent of us aspire to live in a house with a garden; yet the debate so often dwells on ‘minority sports’ such as city centre loft living. Green space is not only important in creating desirable housing; it is also integral to more environmental design.

'A renaissance of Garden Cities and Garden Suburbs, with the provision of proper neighbourhood centres, not urban deserts, would help create communities we would all aspire to live in.'

The TCPA was the first body to campaign for rural or green belts in 1919, believing they should complement local communities [2]. While the Charity remains committed to the principles of green belts it is important to highlight that they are too often run down and of poor environmental quality. The TCPA believes that local communities rightly have the ability to redraw green belt boundaries and should continue to be allowed to do so provided the concept of a permanent belt remains intact.