A NEW garden city is to be built at Bicester as part of the Coalition's plans to deal with the housing shortage, Nick Clegg has confirmed.

Bicester has been chosen as the site for the new £100m community, which will have up to 13,000 new homes.

The proposals will be outlined in the National Infrastructure Plan being published tomorrow when ministers are also set to announce a range of other housing measures.

Earlier this year, the Government announced that Ebbsfleet in Kent had been picked to become the first modern garden city.

Bicester expressed an interest in following suit and is in line for a new railway station to serve the expanded population as part of rail plans previously announced by the Deputy Prime Minister.

Mr Clegg told the Daily Telegraph: "The Liberal Democrats have long argued that garden cities are an idea whose time has come again.

"I am delighted that Bicester can now be confirmed as a pioneer in what I hope will be another wave of garden cities in this country.

"This is a significant victory for the approach championed by the Coalition Government - where local areas put their hand up and say we want to become a garden city or garden town."

He added: "Bicester will get help from the Government with both significant capital investment and in helping developers build the amenities that are required to be a true garden town.

"I hope many other towns will follow Bicester's lead and we will see more garden cities spring up that have the affordable, well-designed homes with proper transport links; services and amenities, which our young families want and need."

Under the garden city initiative, a series of new communities with green spaces, sustainable transport and spacious homes will be built.

Mr Clegg has previously claimed the Conservatives "held back the development of garden cities on the scale necessary" and promised at least ten will be created if the Liberal Democrats are part of the next government.

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