The Garden City idea can help planning authorities reimagine the UK’s towns and cities in an innovative and holistic manner, says Charlotte Llewellyn, the Osborn Research Assistant at the Town & Country Planning Association (TCPA).

This year marks the 125th anniversary of Ebenezer Howard’s seminal work 'To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform', outlining the Garden City vision. While our society has changed in many ways since the publication of Howard’s book, we still face many of the same challenges, including a severe shortage of good quality, affordable homes that support our health. However, recent challenges such as the climate emergency and the Covid-19 pandemic have made us further question our relationship with our towns and cities. A conversation has re-emerged about how we live, work, and interact with the places around us and how we can make the UK’s towns and cities fit for the 21st century. New Garden Cities are a key part of the solution.

At the core of the Garden City movement was the desire to make places that better enabled human flourishing. Howard envisaged places that harmoniously married the social, economic, and cultural landscape of the city with the health and well-being benefits of the countryside. Most remarkably, the Garden City movement outlined practical funding solutions that could enable places and their inhabitants to thrive, in perpetuity. Essential components of the Garden City model were its commitment to provide long-term stewardship of land and places, as well as working to ensure that everybody benefited from the profits of development. Despite over a century of myths and misunderstanding around the idea (addressed in the ‘Garden City Mythbuster’), Garden Cities provide an imaginative but practical solution.

For over a decade, the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) has led a campaign to rejuvenate the Garden City idea and have considered how local authorities can apply the core principles to new and existing communities. Derived from Howard’s original concept and modernised to account for today’s challenges, the TCPA’s Garden City Principles provide an interlocking and indivisible framework for creating places that not only allow people to survive but enable them to flourish.

Garden City Principles

• Land value capture for the benefit of the community.

• Strong vision, leadership and community engagement.

• Community ownership of land and long-term stewardship of assets.

• Mixed-tenure homes and housing types that are genuinely affordable.

• A wide range of local jobs in the Garden City within easy commuting distance of homes.

• Beautifully and imaginatively designed homes with gardens, combining the best of town and country to create healthy communities, and including opportunities to grow food.

• Development that enhances the natural environment, providing a comprehensive green infrastructure network and net biodiversity gains, and that uses zero-carbon and energy-positive technology to ensure climate resilience.

• Strong cultural, recreational, and shopping facilities in walkable, vibrant, sociable neighbourhoods.

• Integrated and accessible transport systems, with walking, cycling and public transport designed to be the most attractive forms of local transport.

The Garden City Principles outlined above demonstrate the need for ambitious, creative, and holistic place-making. Covering an expansive range of topics, from food production, and housing to the natural environment, the Garden City Principles outline a broad approach to placemaking that can adapt to suit the needs and context of a particular setting.

However, Garden Cities are not just a utopian ideal but a prefigurative movement, with a range of stakeholders living and organising in a manner that reflects the future they are striving towards. A range of community initiatives draw upon the ideas of the Garden City movement, from community land trusts to community food and energy production. One example of Garden City principles in action is the Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation. Established to manage the long-term stewardship of Letchworth Garden City, it works to re-invest its profits in the local community, providing cultural facilities, such as the town’s cinema, and grants to tackle issues within the town. Community management of assets and services in Letchworth including affordable housing, food production and arts and cultural facilities, provide additionality to those provided by the local authority, helping to ensure residents have reliable access to important amenities. Though subject to its own challenges, the Foundation’s example provides clear lessons on how the Garden City vision can work in the UK.

There are several practical actions planning authorities can take to implement the Garden City Principles, including considering long-term stewardship in the early stages of development, implementing 20-minute neighbourhoods, as well as supporting and engaging local community initiatives. The TCPA has produced detailed guidance on how to apply the principles today, including a new Practical Toolkit for Councils on Long-Term Stewardship. Despite the confusion caused by Planning Reform, adopting Garden City Principles in Local Plans remains one of the strongest tools available to make this idea a reality (over twenty-four adopted Local Plans have already made this commitment).

The Garden City idea can help planning authorities reimagine the UK’s towns and cities in an innovative and holistic manner. It provides the opportunity to recognise the heritage and context of a place, while equipping it with the assets, services, and economic models it needs to thrive in the 21st century and beyond. Garden Cities can help put human flourishing and climate resilience at the centre of the UK’s planning systems, providing the practical tools to realise the legacy of thriving communities.