Proposed eco towns encounter criticism from locals: shortlist to be published 'soon'

A shortlist of sites for up to 10 new eco-towns is expected in the next few weeks, according to housing minister Caroline Flint.

Plans for the new zero-carbon settlements, which will be built to 'the highest environmental standards', according to CLG, have come under criticism from residents near some of the proposed sites.

Flint said the best of more than 50 proposals received by the government would make the shortlist and that the plans would be subject to 'robust and transparent' scrutiny.

Flint also promised that the Government's proposed programme of eco-towns would be subject to rigorous 'planning processes'. 'Each proposal will have to submit a planning application and will be properly scrutinised before it can proceed.'

The Government is due to announce a shortlist of schemes shortly which will have to be refined and subject to full public consultation before the successful projects are named. Nearly 60 bids have been made and have been assessed under a cross-Government exercise.

'Only the best proposals will survive - a majority will fall by the wayside. Weak bids where the greenest element is the recycling of failed proposals won't make it though,' said Flint.

She also stressed that the Government would look at what will work best 'in each location' but added 'we will also ensure that every successful scheme must achieve certain standards on everything from effective consultation to use of land to public transport.'

The minister emphasised that the initiative was an opportunity 'to radically rethink how we design, plan and create genuinely sustainable developments.'

She said some proposals aimed to emulate the 'most ambitious European models' where only 50 per cent of households have a car by ensuring services are within a 10 minute walk of all homes.

Flint also made it plain that local authorities that include an eco-town in their future housing plans will be able to count that residential development towards their future housing targets.

Meanwhile, proposals for Scotland's first eco-town have surfaced for a location at Cardenden in Fife which is being proposed by Banks Development.

The minister used her keynote speech at the Ecobuild exhibition in London on Wednesday,o signal industry-wide talks to seek agreement that all new non-residential development would be zero carbon by the end of the next decade. She also announced that all new homes from May this year would have to be rated against the Code for Sustainable Homes.

'Buyers of new homes will be able to see, for the first time, just how green their home is - not just in terms of emissions but water consumption, impact on biodiversity, and so on,' she explained.

Her comments came as delegates to the exhibition got their first sight of the UK's first affordable eco-friendly home in the shape of a three-bedroom flat-pack, timber-framed dwelling costing £150,000 which can be ordered immediately.

In a related development the British Property Federation has called for consistency between Government departments over the definition of what constitutes a zero-carbon home and whether off-site sources of green energy are eligible.

The BPF is no longer opposing the measures set out in the Planning and Energy Bill, designed to support councils who want to introduce their own versions of the 'Merton rule'. The Bill has now been modified as a result of deliberations by a Commons committee and has the backing of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

After the first shortlist is published there will be a full public consultation, followed by a second shortlist later this year.

Flint said: 'People who are against these schemes have to talk about why that is.

'If we are meeting standards and exploring what is sustainable and possible and reassure through these schemes that there will be benefits for communities in the wider area, then we can continues to debate but we have to come down to what the hardest question is - those who are against more homes.'