Sir Frederic James Osborn (1885–1978) was a leading member of the UK Garden city movement and was chairman of the Town and Country Planning Association.
It was here that he formed the view that Government intervention was essential if new settlements were to be developed, setting this out as early as 1918 in an article on "The public control of the location of towns".
[2] In 1919 Howard purchased land for a second garden city at Welwyn, and Osborn moved with him to become Company Secretary and Estate Manager.
[3] Frederic left the company in 1936, and devoted the rest of his life to promoting the garden city movement.
He objected to the expansion of towns on the basis this imposed a burden of commuting which would be carry implications for cost, time and leisure.