A government backed initiative to build almost 50,000 new homes on 14 new sites across England has been given the go ahead this week. In a £6m expansion of the already successful Garden Villages project, small, locally-led developments in key sites across the UK will see the development of between 1,500 to 10,000 homes in places most in need of new housing projects.

In a departure from the traditional house-building model, the Garden Villages philosophy seeks to build independent communities with their own homes, jobs and infrastructure – rather than building thousands of houses next to existing villages and urban areas. It is hoped the new Garden Villages will provide new and sustainable living that will completely nullify the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) objections to planning that has hampered the progress of previous developments.

The 14 new garden villages – from Devon to Derbyshire, Cornwall to Cumbria – will have access to a £6 million fund over the next two financial years. The government also announced its support for three new Garden Towns (with developments of 10,000+ homes) in Aylesbury, Taunton and Harlow & Gilston – and a further £1.4 million of funding to support their delivery. Added to the existing seven Garden Villages, the announcement of another 17 developments will have the combined potential to provide almost 200,000 new homes across the country.

Housing and Planning Minister Gavin Barwell said: “Locally-led garden towns and villages have enormous potential to deliver the homes that communities need. New communities not only deliver homes, they also bring new jobs and facilities and a big boost to local economies.”

Facing a severe housing shortage across the country, the government hopes that the Garden Villages project is the start of more than 25,000 housing developments that will be initiated between 2017-2020. So far, no Garden Villages or Towns have been announced in Wiltshire.

New Garden Villages have been announced in:

• Long Marston in Stratford-on-Avon

• Oxfordshire Cotswold in West Oxfordshire

• Deenethorpe in East Northants

• Culm in Mid Devon

• Welborne near Fareham in Hampshire

• West Carclaze in Cornwall

• Dunton Hills near Brentwood, Essex

• Spitalgate Heath in South Kesteven, Lincolnshire

• Halsnead in Knowsley, Merseyside

• Longcross in Runnymede and Surrey Heath

• Bailrigg in Lancaster

• Infinity Garden Village in South Derbyshire and Derby City area

• St Cuthberts near Carlisle City, Cumbria

• North Cheshire in Cheshire East

New Garden Towns have been announced in:

• Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire

• Taunton, Somerset

• Harlow & Gilston, Essex and Hertfordshire