Further details have been revealed about the assessment criteria of a competition to find the best idea for a garden city. Prize money of £250,000 is on offer to the entrant who submits the most “visionary, economically viable and popular” idea for a garden city that could help ease the current housing crisis.
The competition was launched in November by Tory peer, Lord Wolfson. Speaking at a conference on garden cities this week, he gave more insight into how competition entries would be judged. He highlighted the importance of economic viability for the proposed schemes, adding that naming specific locations was not an essential requirement, but would give the entries more credibility.
He said: “We are not insisting on it, but there’s no doubt that naming a location will add to the credibility of the arguments.”
When quizzed about the size of potential settlements, Wolfson said proposals would need “to be a city in the normal sense of the word”.
“Clearly, 3,000 people is not enough. It has to be capable of becoming a city, not necessarily a city built overnight,” he said.
The deadline for primary submissions is 9am on Monday March 3.
Source: Interflora – Garden City Competition Springs Into Life
