Two years aften plans were submitted, a new development in one of Britain’s youngest ‘garden cities’ has just been given the go ahead.
Ebbsfleet Garden City in Kent is not actually a city. In basic terms, a ‘garden city’ is a town with a wide border of countryside around it and a proportionate amount of residences, industry and agriculture. The idea is that it benefits the natural environment, promotes a mixed economy and benefits the wellbeing of residents. Other famous garden city examples include Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth Garden City.
The approved plans are for an area that will be called Ebbsfleet Central – touted to by the ‘dynamic commercial centre’ of the area. It will include two new neighbourhoods with 2,100 homes (35 percent of which will be affordable housing), a school, 87,000 square metres of office, retail and leisure space and plenty of open spaces.
It will be built around Ebbsfleet International Station and be just 17 minutes from central London.
On its website, Ebbsfleet Development Corporation that the new area will have ‘a generous inclusion of outdoor spaces to provide space to breathe, relax, and emphasise the importance of being part of a healthy community’ and ‘act as a magnet for inclusive economic growth’.
Plans for the town were approved back in 2014 by the government to deliver up to 15,000 homes by 2035 with a commitment to 30 percent affordable homes and 40 percent blue and green space. In February this year, Ebbsfleet Garden City had built its 4,000th home.
New neighbourhoods
The UK is actually getting several brand new towns over the next few years. A massive £2 billion town is being built just outside Edinburgh, Asda is building a 1,500-home urban village in west London, there’s gonna be a a new ‘luxury town’ on the Thames backed by Porsche and Prince William is building a massive 2,500-home estate in southeast England.
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