Aylesbury awarded £420,000 to speed up Garden Town home building delivery

A £9 million cash injection to speed up the locally-led building of new garden towns and villages across the country has been announced today (13 February 2019).
Housing Minister Kit Malthouse MPHousing Minister Kit Malthouse MP
Housing Minister Kit Malthouse MP

The Garden Communities project is expected to deliver 200,000 properties on large sites by 2050, and the latest funding will help get 21 sites ready for development.

Aylesbury has been allocated £420,000, and is expected to deliver 15,000 homes.

The government allocated funds with priority to applications with more than 10,000 homes, or applications that showed "exceptional quality or innovations, development on predominantly brownfield sites, being in an area of particularly high housing demand, or ability to expand substantially further in the future."

The government project is helping what they deem "ambitious councils" to get well-designed homes built on large sites, and the money will help pay for master-planning and technical studies.

Work is already underway on 10,000 properties across the country in garden towns and villages, with 36,000 expected to be underway or completed by 2022.

Housing Minister Kit Malthouse MP said:

"We have not built enough homes in this country for the last three decades, and we are turning that around as we work towards our target to build 300,000 properties a year by the mid-2020s.

"This £9 million funding boost is giving councils the support and cash injection they need so they can finish planning new developments and get diggers on site."

The vision for Aylesbury Garden town is set out in the emerging Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan, which says:

By 2033, it will have grown and be an inclusive, innovative and forward-looking Garden Town that meets the needs and aspirations of existing and new residents, businesses and visitors. Aylesbury Garden Town will be a key hub, a place to visit, with public transport and interchange offering a diverse choice of travel modes, and a recognised centre for investment and growth providing new jobs and opportunities for all. Aylesbury Garden Town will have:

->a thriving and revitalised town centre

->quality homes, facilities, infrastructure and job opportunities

->distinctive garden communities each with their own identity

->high quality, connected green space and good connections to its rural surroundings

->walking, cycling and sustainable transport links