Response: Wolfson Economic Prize
By: Toby Lloyd Published: June 2014
- Shelter submission to the Wolfson Economic Prize (PDF 6.0 MB)
- Summary Briefing (PDF 674.4 KB)
Summary
England desperately needs more homes. But our supply system is locked into a low output, low quality and high cost paradigm. Our New Garden City model transforms this dysfunctional system by delivering:
- Pension funds supporting large scale house building.
- 1,000+ homes built out per year per site.
- A viable, large scale off-site residential construction industry.
- A small and medium house builder renaissance.
- Quality homes affordable to the builders and architects who create them.
- Substantial self-build contribution to supply.
- A self-funding mechanism for transport infrastructure upgrades.
- Local people having vested interests in supporting development.
- Community ownership of assets funding exemplary local services.
- Zero public finance for development.
Our submission sets out how to make this vision a reality by building a New Garden City with a population of 150,000 on the Hoo Peninsula, Medway. With detailed analysis of Stoke Harbour - a self-sufficient town of 35,000-48,000 people that will be the seed settlement in a polycentric city - we show how our model can leverage massive new private investment into the provision of high quality homes, jobs, services and infrastructure.