Policy exchange - New Garden Cities: Finalists for the £250,000 Wolfson Economics Prize to be announced on 4 June 2014

14 Apr 2014 11:47 AM

Synopsis

Simon Wolfson, the founder of the prestigious Wolfson Economics Prize, today revealed that the finalists for the 2014 Prize will be announced at a special event on Wednesday 4 June 2014. The prize asks entrants to write an essay on how they would deliver a new garden city which is visionary, economically-viable, and popular.

There were 279 entries to the competition.

Simon Wolfson said:

“I’m thrilled at the overwhelming response to the 2014 Prize competition. We have had some very promising entries and I look forward to the next stages. Garden cities are great opportunity to provide our children and grandchildren with wonderful new places to live and work. They could also be an important part of the solution to the socially divisive issue of rampant price inflation.”

Trevor Osborne, Chairman of the Judges, said:

“Delivering a new garden city is an enormously complex task, spanning finance, legal, design, governance economic and environmental issues. We are hugely impressed by the entrants’ efforts to grapple with these issues and the competition is very hotly contested with a wide range of approaches. But in the end we will have to choose a small handful of finalists. The Judges are continuing their deliberations.”

The finalists will be given until 11 August to refine their submissions and resubmit for re-judging. A decision on the overall winner, is expected in September. The winner will receive £250,000.

More details of the 4 June event will be announced in due course.

Notes To Editors

1. Press enquiries about the Prize can be directed to John Higginson at Westbourne Communications Ltd, 07920 701 693.
2. At £250,000 the Wolfson Economics Prize is the second-biggest cash economics prize after the Nobel Prize. The prize seeks to find the best answer to the following question: “How would you deliver a new Garden City which is visionary, economically-viable, and popular?”
3. The 2014 Prize topic was announced on 14 November 2013 and the entry deadline was 3 March 2014. Entrants were asked to provide an essay (‘Primary Submission’) of 10,000 words (plus non-technical summary of 1,000 words) on the Prize Question. Entrants were permitted to include additional Appendices and illustrative material.
4. The Judges have been asked by Simon Wolfson to select around five finalists. All Finalists who submit a revised Secondary Submission which elaborates on their Primary Submission will receive a £10,000 except for the eventual winner who will win £250,000.
5. Other prizes, known as ‘Light Bulb’ prizes, will be awarded to entrants whose entries address aspects of the Prize Question in particularly innovative, creative or otherwise outstanding ways. The fund for these Prizes is £10,000.
6. The full Rules for the competition, the entrants Information Booklet, and other material related to the Prize, is available at www.wolfsonprize.org.uk
7. The Wolfson Prize was founded in 2011 by Lord (Simon) Wolfson of Aspley Guise. There has been one previous competition, on the topic of the Eurozone. The winner of the 2012 Prize was Roger Bootle with Capital Economics.
8. Simon Wolfson, the Founder of the Wolfson Economics Prize, has been Chief Executive of Next plc since 2001, a company he joined as a Sales Assistant in 1991. Since his appointment as Chief Executive Next profits have more than doubled with earnings per share compounding at 16% per annum. Simon was created a Tory Peer in 2010. Simon's long standing interest in better housing, the social and economic benefits it can bring to the UK are born of years of experience trading the length and breadth of the UK.
9. Trevor Osborne is Chair of the 2014 Wolfson Economics Prize judges and is one of Britain’s leading property developers. Through his current investment vehicle, The Trevor Osborne Property Group Limited, he has built award-winning mixed-use, commercial, leisure and residential projects, often in historical buildings and often partnering with Councils and other public sector organisations. From 1991-92, Trevor was the President of the British Property Federation. From 1980-1982 he was the Leader of Wokingham District Council.
10. The four other Judges for the 2014 Prize are:

• Professor Denise Bower is the Director of the Engineering Project Academy at the University of Leeds. She is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, where she chairs the Capacity building Panel, a member of the IUK Client Working Group, a member of the Cabinet Office Trial Projects Delivery Group, an Executive member of the Engineering Professors’ Council and convener of the Network for Excellence in the Learning and Teaching of Project Management.
• David Cowans is Group Chief Executive of Places for People and has 30 years’ extensive experience of housing, urban regeneration, mixed-use development, financial management, and of leading strategic change in both large and small organisations. He is a Chartered Director of the Institute of Directors, a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, Chartered Member of the Institute 3 of Housing, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Member of The Institute of Residential Property Management.
• Pascal Mittermaier is the Director of Sustainability EMEA and Project Director, Elephant & Castle Regeneration at Lend Lease. From 2002-2007 he was the President of Swiss healthcare company Roche, based in Montreal and from 2007-2010 CEO of Roche in Milan.
• Tony Pidgley CBE is the Chairman of The Berkeley Group. He left school at 15 to form his own company in haulage and plant hire. At 21, he sold his business to Crest Homes and became a Building Director reporting to their Managing Director, Jim Farrer. In 1975, Tony and Jim left to form Berkeley Homes. The company enjoyed considerable growth over the following 10 years. It floated on the Unlisted Securities Market in 1984, and then gained a full listing in 1985 as The Berkeley Group plc.