Cameron 'blocking' garden cities push

David Cameron has dropped his support for a new generation of ‘garden cities’ for fear of sparking a backlash from ‘nimby’ protestors in the lead up to the 2015 general election, according to the Financial Times.

The prime minister first floated the idea for a new generation of garden cities in early 2012, then in November of that year the deputy prime minster promised the government would offer incentives for the creation of imaginative new developments, with the government commiting to create “garden cities and suburbs for the 21st century”.

At the time, Nick Clegg argued that the UK must “build its way out” of a housing crisis, insisting that it was no longer good enough to think of small-scale developments on the edge of towns.

However, more than a year after Clegg’s commitment little progress has been made, with a long-awaited paper on the proposals yet to emerge.

According to the Financial Times, the prime minister is reluctant to press ahead with detailed proposals for new garden cities for fear of prompting a backlash in the run-up to the 2015 general election.

The FT said that, according to one Downing Street official, Cameron had forbidden ministers from identifying any sites for potential new towns during this parliament.

A Conservative spokesman told the FT that the party did not “recognise any of this”.