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Land & New Homes

Green controversy! Minister backs plans to get rid of private gardens for new-builds

Agents may soon have one less item to include in their property details for homes – a patch of greenery at the back.

Nigel Lewis

communal homes

Housing ministers Chris Pincher has backed plans to scrap private gardens after his civil servants short-listed six architects for its Homes of 2030 contest.

The competition aims to fulfil its promise to create better-designed homes as it ramps up the number of units being built every year, and includes several plans by the architects to scrap private gardens and instead provide communal spaces.

How this idea goes down with home buyers of the future is another matter given Briton’s love of private gardens, but the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government says it wants the next generation of housing to be greener, healthier, better for elderly people and quicker to build.

Reading between the lines, Ministers are keen to find ideas that enable development to be higher density – gardens force developers to spread out houses across sites.

App access

For example, the design by Studio Open suggests a quartet of homes built around a courtyard garden that residents can book via an app for private use but that would otherwise be communal.

The six short-listed architect firms have now been given £40,000 to developer their ideas.

Ministers gave designers four key requirements; that the homes must be adaptable to how needs change as people become older, have net zero carbon emissions, promote healthy living, and be deliverable in large numbers.

“This competition demonstrates the best of British design being brought to bear on a key issue for today, and future generations: delivering homes that are good for the planet and that promote healthy, independent living for older generations,” says Pincher (left).

Read the full details.

August 24, 2020

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