15 potential locations for eco towns announced

Housing Minister Caroline Flint has announced 15 potential locations for eco towns. These will now go forward to the next stage of the development process.

Based on an evaluation of the bids, the government announced that no new homes will be built on green belt land, but the proposals make use of previously developed brownfield land including former MoD land, military depots, disused airfields and former mining pits and industrial sites. The short listed locations also address regional priorities such as the severe shortage of suitable housing or the regeneration of former industrial areas.

From the 57 initial proposals received from local authorities and developers, more than 40 proposals have not been taken forward for being undeliverable or not ambitious enough to meet the high environmental and affordability standards set by government.

The short list is only the first stage and there will now be public consultation and a detailed sustainability appraisal which will assess the merits and challenges for each one. Eco towns will be the first new towns since the 1960s and will tackle the combined challenges of climate change, the need for more sustainable living and the shortage of housing for families and first time buyers.The government has said it wants to build five eco-towns by 2016 and up to ten by 2020 as part of plans to build three million homes by 2020.

Flint said: 'We have a major shortfall of housing and with so many buyers struggling to find suitable homes, more affordable housing is a huge priority.

'To face up to the threat of climate change, we must also cut the carbon emissions from our housing. Eco-towns will help solve both of these challenges.'

The shortlist of potential locations will now be consulted with the public, local authorities and wider stakeholders.

The short listed locations are:
1. Pennbury, Leiceshire: 12-15,000 homes on a development incorporating brownfield, greenfield and surplus public sector land.
2. Manby and Strubby, Lincolnshire: 5,000 homes put forward by East Lindsey district council on two sites, with large elements of brownfield land including a former RAF base.
3. Curborough, Staffordshire: 5,000 homes on the brownfield site of the former Fradley airfield.
4. Middle Quinton, Warwickshire: 6,000 homes on a  former Royal Engineers depot which has a rail link to the Worcester-London rail line.
5. Bordon-Whitehill, Hampshire: 5-8,000 homes on a site owned by the Ministry of Defence.
6. Weston Otmoor, Oxfordshire: 10-15,000 homes on a site adjoining the M40 and the Oxford-Bicester railway, including a current airstrip.
7. Ford, West Sussex: 5,000 homes on a site which includes brownfield land and the former Ford airfield.
8. Imerys China Clay Community, Cornwall: development of around 5,000 homes on former china clay workings, industrial land and disused mining pits.
9. Rossington, South Yorkshire: up to 15,000 homes regenerating the former colliery village of Rossington.
10. Coltishall, Norfolk: 5,000 homes on a former RAF airfield.
11. Hanley Grange, Cambridgeshire: 8,000 homes on land adjacent to the A11.
12. Marston Vale and New Marston, Bedfordshire: up to 15,400 homes on a series of sites, including former industrial sites, along the east-west rail line to Stewartby and Millbrook.
13. Elsenham, Essex: a minimum of 5,000 homes north east of the existing Elsenham village.
Further proposals for Rushcliffe, Northamptonshire and Leeds city region are subject to location negotiations.

This consultation is the first of four key stages in the eco-towns process.

Stage one: Three month consultation on preliminary views on eco-town benefits and these shortlisted locations.

Stage two: Further consultation this summer on a Sustainability Appraisal, which provides a more detailed assessment of these locations, and a draft Planning Policy Statement.

Stage three: A decision on the final list of locations with the potential to be an eco-town and the publication of a final Planning Policy Statement, later this year.

Stage four: Like any other proposed development, individual schemes in these locations will need to submit planning applications which will be decided on the merits of the proposal.

The key criteria for eco-towns were set out in the Eco-towns Prospectus published in July last year:

    (i) Eco-towns must be new settlements, separate and distinct from existing towns but well linked to them. They need to be additional to existing plans, with a minimum target of 5,000-10,000 homes;

    (ii) The development as a whole should reach zero carbon standards, and each town should be an exemplar in at least one area of environmental sustainability;

    (iii) Eco-town proposals should provide for a good range of facilities within the town - a secondary school, a medium scale retail centre, good quality business space and leisure facilities;

    (iv) Affordable housing should make up between 30 and 50 per cent of the total through a wide range and distribution of tenures in mixed communities, with a particular emphasis on larger family homes;

    (v) A management body which will help develop the town, provide support for people moving to the new community, for businesses and to co-ordinate delivery of services and manage facilities.

The Eco-towns Challenge will be a panel of experts to provide advice to bidders to help raise the level of environmental ambition in schemes. The panel will assess, challenge and advise schemes on their environmental proposals and their effectiveness.

Related Government plans for regional spatial strategies...

The Housing Green Paper made it clear that the housing numbers in existing and in some cases emerging plans were not high enough to address the pressing problem of long term housing affordability.

We are therefore aiming to complete a further set of Regional Spatial Strategy partial reviews by 2011 that will include housing numbers for local planning authorities that are consistent with our national aim to deliver 240,000 homes per year by 2016.

We expect eco towns to contribute significantly to help to meet that target for additional housing and we want to assure local authorities which include an eco-town in their future housing plans that it will, of course, count towards their future housing targets, consistent with our national figure of 240,000 homes per year by 2016.

Some authorities are already taking forward development plans which go a long way towards this level and in these areas an authority will be able to count an appropriate proportion of the eco-town towards its local plan target.