Are garden cities all they’re cracked up to be?

Bicester has been chosen as the site for the next green town – large-scale developments which the government says are “hardwired into designs from the beginning”. It is expected to have up to 13,000 new homes.

Earlier this year, Chancellor George Osborne announced that Ebbsfleet, in the Thames Estuary, would also be used to ease the housing crisis in cities, and that it would be a “proper garden city.” The government ultimately plans to build three garden cities designed to house more than 15,000 properties in each area.

However, the government said it “does not wish to impose any definition of what garden cities are, but instead intends to work with localities to support them in developing and delivering their own vision”.

The term #gardencity is being used rather loosely, I feel. I bet the #Bicester development won’t look like this: pic.twitter.com/fMwGtMxPkL

— John Machin (@ohjohnnyoh) December 2, 2014

Do current garden cities reflect the dream?

The founder of the Town and Country Planning Association, Ebenezer Howard, described how “the advantages of the most energetic and active town life, with all the beauty and delight of the country, may be secured in perfect combination”. In his seminal text of 1989, To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, Howard sought to “re-distribute the population in a spontaneous and healthy manner”.

As far back as 1903, Letchworth was the first garden city developed with the vision of creating an ordered and rationally planned town that “combines the best of town and country living”.

Robin Wiles told Channel 4 News Letchworth in the 1970s “didn’t feel like the best place to be as a teenager”. He said: “It felt a bit like living somewhere preserved in aspic with the rather twee architecture.

“At the same time, I think the generally fine Quaker ideals of Ebenezer Howard and co. who set it up were somewhat overtaken by the realities of modern life, and it was starting to lose some of its distinctiveness and turning into another commuter belt town for the well-heeled.”

Another local resident said:

@Channel4News I live in Letchworth – its a wonder concept and place, about to be trampled by the building of 1,000 homes on green belt…

— Bob Johns (@BobJohns) December 2, 2014

In total, 27 cities that mimicked the garden city initiative were built after the second world war. Among the new towns built, Stevenage, Hemel Hempstead, Welwyn Garden City, Redditch, Milton Keynes, Corby and Basildon featured on the list.

They were called garden cities because their layouts included large amounts of green space, and were designed to deal with an accommodation shortage caused by bomb damage, stagnation in the construction industry, returning service personnel and a baby boom.

Lydia, 23, from Milton Keynes told Channel 4 News that the city has “character”, adding: “There is hardly ever any traffic and we have everything you could possibly need – shops, sports facilities, schools, beautiful surrounding countryside, good transport links.

“Some people (mostly snobs, in my opinion) say it has no character or culture but I couldn’t disagree more. Just because a house doesn’t have a thatched roof doesn’t mean it doesn’t have character!”