Garden Cities

Indian Urban Futures VI: Garden settlements for the 21st century

February 2025June 2025

Urban sprawl must stop so that cities become ‘family friendly’. At the sixth Indian Urban Futures conference held in Tirunveli in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Dr Cletus Babu, Founder Chairman of the SCAD Group of Institutions www.scad.ac.in called for ‘innovative and sustainable strategies in addressing India’s evolving urban landscape’. 

Building Social Cities

July 2024June 2025

“Building Social Cities” is a compilation of nine papers published in the journal of the Town & Country Planning Association, focusing on innovative urban planning and development strategies. It explores how a British Investment Bank could mobilise bond finance to enhance housing and local growth, addressing the urgent need for increased housebuilding and improved infrastructure. The document examines successful European practices, aiming to provide policymakers with practical solutions to housing challenges. It advocates for land reform and better funding mechanisms to create sustainable, thriving urban environments across the UK.

Smarter Urbanisation and Rapid Growth HFA

March 2022June 2025

Cities need to change direction fast, if we are to satisfy our needs and retain social values. As the world tips towards the East, and to ‘mega cities’ of more than 10 million inhabitants, countries such as the UK need to offer better models for how to manage growth. The young and the poor feel squeezed out of the residential property markets. But we all complain of congestion, pollution and stress, despite the promised benefits of the Digital Revolution. What is to be done?

Oxfordshire Futures 2050

February 2019July 2025

The Wolfson Essay won considerable praise and publicity. It led on to URBED helping the Oxford Civic Society run a series of consultations and events under the theme Oxford Futures. The final report Oxfordshire Futures 2050 suggests priorities and objectives for a joint strategic spatial plan, with proposals for funding and implementing projects, include an integrated transport system.

Sheffield Garden City? Options for long-term urban growth

July 2015July 2025

This report takes a deep look at how Sheffield, one of England’s under-sized cities, could grow over the coming decades. It explores why provincial cities like Sheffield need to expand, especially given the national housing shortage, and breaks down where and how 100,000 new homes might fit into the city region by using a mix of urban renewal and strategic greenfield extensions.

Uxcester Garden City: Wolfson Economics Prize submission 2014

September 2014July 2025

We describe in this essay (our winning submission for the 2014 Wolfson Economics Prize) a plan to create a garden city of almost 400,000 people by doubling the size of an existing city. This is based on a real city, if not one that we identify. We have called it Uxcester and created it from an amalgam of at least six other cities, all places with populations nearing 200,000, with long histories, established institutions and settled communities.