A consultant who has called for the introduction of a Garden Cities Act that would allow towns including Reading and Rugby to double in size has been awarded £250,000 by Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise.
David Rudlin of URBED, an urban design and research consultancy, has won this year’s Wolfson Economics Prize , for which entrants had to devise a plan on developing an economically viable and popular new garden city in at attempt to resolve Britain’s housing shortage.
Mr Rudlin, a planner by training, argued that the expansion of existing towns was the best way to accommodate growth and regenerate town centres, while protecting the countryside. He made the case for the near-doubling of up to 40 large towns to provide new homes for 150,000 people per town, built over 30 to 35 years.
Each city would apply for garden city status through the act and he believes that as many as 40, including Northampton, Norwich, Oxford, Rugby, Reading and Stafford, could benefit. The runner-up prize of £50,000 was awarded to Shelter, the housing charity , while the three other finalists each received £10,000. All finalists apart from Mr Rudlin set out plans for a brand new city.
The Wolfson Prize was set up by the chief executive of Next in 2011 when he became so worried about the eurozone crisis that he offered a cash award for the economist who could best answer how to manage a country’s orderly exit from the euro. Two competitions have taken place so far and the latest one received 279 entrants.
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Lord Wolfson said: “We urgently need to build more houses and great places in Britain. I am delighted that this year’s Wolfson Economics Prize has generated so many powerful and creative proposals for new garden cities. David’s entry is a tour de force of economic and financial analysis, creative thinking and bold, daring ideas.”