1. Philip Ross What makes a Garden City?
Mayor of Letchworth Garden City Co-author of 21st Century Garden Cities of To-Morrow
Also here : Thomas Hoepfner, Liz Wrigley

2. Philip Ross, Letchworth Garden City

3. Philip Ross, Letchworth Garden City

4. The dream that was Letchworth…

6. Spread of the idea

7. A Garden City is a town designed for industry and healthy living; of a size that makes possible a full measure of social life, but not larger; surrounded by a permanent belt of rural land; the whole of the land being in public ownership or held in trust for the community. C.B. Purdom, 1919
Philip Ross
Philip Ross, Letchworth Garden City

8. Citizenship and Landlords
Ebenezer Howard was inspired by the english culture and hated the idea of a landlord and sought to found a new utopian town where the townsfolk, the residents would be their own landlord in common
Founded the Garden City Movement
Not an architectural project but a social project

9. Access to the land, the ability to be productive with it is intricately linked with
Citizenship and a sense of place, belonging and worth
Growing your own food a right of passage and linked with belonging to a place
The idea of land being a common treasury belonging to a community not a single landlord (be it council or government or other)

10. Urban Agriculture The town would be ringed by farms
It would be self-sufficient
Gardens for people to grow their own food
Allotments too

11. Fred Perry – Brentham Garden Suburb

12. What happened to Letchworth?

13. Letchworth Heritage Foundation
Assets of £127m
Annual spend in town £7m
Population : ~ 35,000
Milton Keynes Parks Trust
Burlington Vermont

15. Applying Garden City principles today…

16. Capturing land value
Milton Keynes Parks Trust These assets worth £20m in 1991 (now worth £84m) and 5,000 acres are controlled by a trust. They generate revenue which pays for the upkeep of the parks and green spaces (about 25% of the city) in perpetuity so it doesn’t have to compete with the local council for funding. 
Burlington Vermont
Assets of $200,000 in 1984, in 2010 $40m
Hong Kong
Transit orientated development land values, development paid for by land value rises
But
Jubilee Line in London £3.5bn of taxpayers money invested
Land values jumped 3.7 time to £13bn, no benefit to community only to landlords

17. TCPA Garden City Principles

18. The new Garden City Movement
Any town can be a Garden City, because it is not just about architecture
Fair and ethical Trade
Environmentally friendly
Representative of its people – community councils
Town owned and controlled by its own people
Access to land, allotments, gardens and urban agriculture

22. Should the Garden City definition left to chance. To Government
Should the Garden City definition left to chance? To Government? To the market?

23. Conclusion
The model is though more than just money about just money and ownership, it is creating the key building block for a successful community a sense of place, a sense of belonging and pride. When I heard the ‘citizen of Letchworth’ I understood where it had come from. People had at the start been given a stake in their community, believed that it belonged to them, they weren’t subjects but citizens.
There right at the creation of the new place, right in its DNA is where you create the garden city and sow the seed of community and citizenship, it doesn’t matter if you are building arts and crafts homes or cities of steel and glass. You can’t tack these principles on at the end.
That is the dream that was and is Letchworth – to build a garden city that is economically, ecologically and social sustainable. Not a mirror image of Letchworth but one that builds on it strengths and learns from its shortcoming. One that builds a city for all, that is built for all to share, enjoy and prosper

24. Conclusions
Determination to build a settlement and overcome opposition without a vision will be fatal and a disaster
The vision to build a place without the determination and ambition to make it happen is impotent
So if you are going to have a new settlement, 13,000 homes, make sure it is a garden city that means something, otherwise you could end up with lots of Brezhnez type homes and a sprinkling of gated communities.

25. THANK YOU