Eco towns under scrutiny

27th June 2008

Schemes condemned as 'unworkable'

The fifteen experts on the Eco-towns Challenge Panel have today set out a series of recommendations for potential eco-town developers, designed to improve their plans to create world-leading sustainable developments. Many bidders have been praised for their vision and commitment but others are warned that their ideas must be more ambitious or that they lack innovation.

Formed of leading experts from the worlds of design, the environment, transport and sustainability, the Panel were tasked with reviewing developers' proposals, providing expert advice on their work and challenging them to meet the highest standards possible. Developers were grilled on issues ranging from their ability to reduce the carbon footprint of residents and their reliance on cars to the likely "day in the life" of an eco-town resident in 2020.

Housing Minister Caroline Flint said:

"I have been clear from the start that only those bids that reach the highest possible standards for sustainability can make it through. The Eco-town Challenge panel have played an important role in both providing advice and encouragement to developers on what they have done well, but also challenging them to up their game where there is room for improvement. I'd like to thank the Panel for all their hard work.

"This process was meant to be a challenging ride for the developers, and they need to be open to the creativity of these ideas. Some clearly need to up their game and the ball is now in their court."

Caroline Flint said eco towns should offer a minimum 30 per cent affordable housing, and that the government would like that figure to rise. She told MPs: 'This is work in progress, and there are no done deals on any of these sites.'

John Walker, Chairman of the Eco-towns Challenge Panel, said:

"Our brief was to challenge each proposal in a robust and constructive way, and I think we have done a good job on that front. We have seen much to admire, but in all cases we are challenging the developers to take major steps forward. We want the final eco-towns to be better than the best of the current examples that do exist in the UK and the rest of Europe - clearly there is still a lot of work to do."

Developers now have the opportunity to consider how they plan to respond to these challenges before meeting with the Panel again next month to discuss their work in progress. 

However some MPs have warned that the government's plans for new eco towns are unworkable, unpopular and would produce car-dependent dormitory towns. Speaking in the first Commons debate on the subject, Conservative shadow housing minister Grant Shapps said house builders had told him it would be impossible to get the new settlements built by the government deadlines of 2016 and 2020.
'With the best will in the world, and even if all the stops are pulled out, no one goes to judicial review and it is plain sailing from day one - the planned homes cannot be built on time…..For that to happen, it would require a lorry delivering material to turn up once every 20 seconds at sites throughout the country.'  He accused the government of back-pedalling on commitments that the towns would be up to 50 per cent affordable housing. In the 15 shortlisted proposals the combined affordable element was 26 per cent, he said, and one bid offered just 10 per cent affordable housing. 

Further criticism has come from former Labour housing minister Nick Raynsford, who said it had been a mistake for government to focus the programme on freestanding developments, and not consider the scope for urban extensions. He added that Gordon Brown's aspiration that there be an eco town in each English region had been 'foolish' because 'they should be located where they are most needed and where they are most likely to work'. 

One of the advisory panel on eco towns has resigned in disgust at their lack of ambition. Nick Rosen, author of “How to Live Off-grid” has stepped down after it became clear that the towns will get much of their energy from mains supplies rather than be self-supporting for their energy needs.

There have been protests from local people near many of the sites of the proposed towns, and one of the short-listed developments is being funded by supermarket giant Tesco, adding to suspicions about the motives of the developers.