ROOF Blog

Nine new locations have been given permission to proceed with developing plans for new settlements which meet environmentally-friendly standards, and will receive a share of £5 million in Government funds.

To qualify to become an eco-town a development must have 5,000 homes, at least 30 per cent of which should be affordable for those on low incomes, and contain low-carbon services, buildings, transport and energy.

Shoreham Harbour and a second site in Northstowe, Cambridge, have already begun development and will be redesigned to meet higher levels of sustainability.

Five more local authorities are seeking to set up potential eco-towns across 10 locations.

The locations of four new eco-towns were announced yesterday – Rackheath, Norfolk; north west Bicester, Oxfordshire; Whitehall Bordon, east Hampshire; and China Clay near St Austell in Cornwall. Communities and Local Government said the government would provide £60 million in funding to provide infrastructure to support the towns and a further £5 million would be made available for councils to work on proposals for a ‘second wave’ of six more towns. Construction is not expected to start until 2016.

The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) has claimed that designing eco-towns to be more inclusive would cost no more if it was factored into the planning process early on, and has produced guidance on how to it. It says that eco-towns should provide for all inhabitants regardless of age, disability, faith or gender, and avoid creating barriers that prevent them from becoming part of their communities. A spokesperson for TCPA said it was essential for each town to be socially as well as environmentally sustainable.

A recent decision by Rushcliffe borough council to refuse planning permission for a 1,200 home development on green belt land has been overturned by communities secretary John Denham. The local authority had thrown out the scheme on the grounds that it would have created traffic and resulted in a loss of green belt land, however, the secretary of state said there was an ‘urgent need’ for the release of land for housing in Rushcliffe.

The Conservatives have called for the eco-town programme to be scrapped saying that developers are running scared from the plans. Shadow housing minister Grant Schapps said the ‘small print’ of the draft legislation published last week reveal that plans for the eco-towns had now been pushed back to 2020, but John Healey said he would be making an announcement within the next two weeks on all potential eco-town sites.

A new report has suggested that the European Commission could be asked to help deliver eco-towns in England. The report recognises that eco-towns in Europe have benefited from strong local authorities, who are ‘deeply committed to the sustainable development agenda’ over a long period, and the current credit crunch will add to delivery and implementation problems. The report concludes that a work programme is needed for the next three years which seeks to improve UK capacity and bring together public and private stakeholders who can work across sectors and boundaries.

An eco-village in South Gloucestershire, which has been billed as England’s first large scale zero carbon development, has been given full planning permission. Hanham Hall, a development between Barratt Developments and the Homes and Communities Agency will have 195 zero-carbon homes built to the highest level 6 standards, and will be run day to day by a community owned and run trust.

A leading planning lawyer has attacked the failure of the government to push forward plans for eco-towns. Richard Ford from Pinsent Masons said the ‘perpetual delays’ were frustrating and it was essential for the government to make its mind.

The developers of a proposed eco-town near Stratford-upon-Avon have misled local residents about its potential benefits the advertising watchdog, Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), has ruled. MP Peter Luff challenged the claims that Middle Quinton would create more than 4,700 new jobs and 6,000 homes and questioned the claim the site would be located on brownfield land. The ASA upheld Mr Luff’s complaint and ruled the two companies, St Mowden and the Bird Group, must not repeat the claims.

No eco-town will make the government’s shortlist unless they meet the highest standards, Margaret Beckett has insisted. She said that they still all need work to meet the green standards set by the government. She added she was hopeful that 10 schemes would make the mark but that if they do not they would not be approved.