Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, ahead of his budget statement this week, the chancellor said that an initial 15,000 homes would be built along the Thames Estuary in north Kent.
Mr Osborne described the proposal as a "proper garden city", served by a high speed rail line into London and Paris. It would be the UK’s first garden city since Welwyn Garden City in 1920.
Ebbsfleet has long been targeted for massive development – a key reason the High Speed 1 line was out throguh Ebbsfleet was to generate development – but little has happened to date. Mr Osborne said that an urban development corporation will now be set up to get the plans off the ground and speed up the construction. He has earmarked £200m of government funding for the project.
Mr Osborne also said that the Help to Buy equity loan scheme, credited with reviving the housing market, will be extended until 2020. It was scheduled to end in 2016, and some commentators had called for it to be cut short for fear of overheating the market.
In January housing minister Kris Hopkins said: “This government has scrapped top-down Whitehall planning.”
Not entirely, perhaps.
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