The second Wolfson Economics Prize will award £250,000 for the best proposal for how to create a garden city.

Runners-up will win £10,000 and the judges may choose to award further prizes for particularly creative ideas.

The introduction to the competition stated:

“The case for garden cities is overwhelming with the current housing situation in the UK creating hardship and inequality for millions of people. But finding an innovative way to build communities that truly provide for and support their residents is not simple to achieve.”

Entrants must set out their vision for a new garden city, explain how their idea would be economically viable and also why it would be popular. Submissions may be up to 10,000 words plus a 1,000 word summary, and entrants can also include charts, maps and tables.

The prize is funded by Next chief executive and Conservative peer Baron Wolfson. The deadline for submissions is Monday 3 March 2014.

The garden cities movement began at the turn of the last century as reformers sought to create self-contained communities surrounded by green-belt land.

This resulted in the creation of Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth Garden City. The idea was then adapted in the post-war period to build Britain’s new towns.