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Tammy Newell
Tammy Newell
  • 1 Minute Read
  • 20th March 2012

David Cameron’s Pledge to Create ‘Garden Cities’

Prime Minister, David Cameron, has announced plans to re-introduce the concept of ‘garden cities’, a policy which decides how best to incorporate green belt land into areas which have high potential for residential and commercial growth.

Britain's Green Belt

The PM pledged this movement at a speech held at the Institute of Civil Engineers yesterday, promising to protect the green belt, whilst boosting the number of housing and development plans in areas such as and - towns have a lot of undeveloped, agricultural land, but also have good transport facilities which can be monopolised.

Like many government policies, ‘garden cities’ has some opposition, in this case, from the National Trust. It’s suggested that Mr Cameron’s policy will neglect the environment in favour of boosting economic growth. However, the PM returned this comment, stating that “Yes we need more housing, but sprawling over the countryside isn’t the answer'”.

The government will publish its controversial ‘garden city’ policy, entitled the National Planning Policy Framework on Wednesday 21st March, along with the proposed budget. Only time will tell if the policy is well executed, but for the sake of Britain's green belt, certainly hopes that it is carried out sufficiently.