In a recent statement the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) announced that a fund, provided by the government, would support the delivery of new projects over the next two financial years. The supported projects proposed consist of fourteen new ‘garden villages’ and three new ‘garden towns’.

Garden villages are smaller developments of between 1,500 and 10,000 homes, whereas garden towns are larger settlements of more than 10,000 homes, according to the DCLG. The fourteen new garden villages will be provided with a fund of £6 million, and the three new garden towns will receive £1.4 million. The grants will be used to “unlock the full capacity of sites, providing funding for additional resources and expertise to accelerate development and avoid delays".

This announcement follows a prospectus published by the DCLG in spring 2016, which invited local planning authorities to provide applications to develop garden villages of up to 10,000 homes.

The DCLG also outlined that these 17 new developments, along with the seven new settlements previously announced, would have a combined potential to deliver nearly 20,000 homes. 

The new locations of the garden villages include: Long Marston in Stratford-on-Avon, Oxfordshire Cotswold in West Oxfordshire, Deenethorpe in East Northants, Culm in Mid Devon and Welborne near Fareham in Hampshire.
 
The new locations of the garden towns are: Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, Taunton in Somerset and Harlow & Gilston, in Essex and Hertfordshire.

This year, the government has also made an extra £1 million available for further garden village proposals. This is due to the considerable amount of interest submitted. It was also suggested that further proposals may be called for in 2017.