Funding boost for eco towns, green transport policy and green homes

Housing Minister John Healey has backed the country's biggest ever green home building programme, with four areas sharing £60m cash to build over 600 new homes to the toughest ever environmental standards. The cash is a major boost for councils driving forward innovative blueprints for the main eco-towns in their 'masterplans', before seeking public approval and planning permission

These new 'eco-show homes' will be built in and around the four pioneering eco-town locations, introducing nearly 2,000 people to 'green living' and saving them hundreds of pounds on bills, says the minister. Nearly a third of these homes will be affordable.

The funding will also improve existing transport links, including rapid routes for buses with real-time travel information, green travel hubs and facilities for electric cars and bikes. Pioneering new energy projects will be set up so that residents take their energy from natural sources.

People will see first hand the latest technology like smart meters to track energy use, electric car charging points, properly insulated homes built to the toughest ever standards and systems for saving water and recycling or composting waste. Most of the eco-show homes will be available for sale so that hundreds of families can experience green living and get a feel for eco-homes of the future.

Last year Mr Healey gave the go-ahead for the first wave of world leading eco-town sites in Whitehill-Bordon in Hampshire, St Austell in Cornwall, Rackheath in Norfolk and North West Bicester in Oxfordshire.

By 2016, 10,000 eco homes will be built in the four landmark areas. The new homes and new neighbourhoods will be designed, planned and built to world leading environmental standards.

The new cash will introduce greener living not only for people who go on to live in the new eco-towns, but for the 65,000 people already living nearby. Construction could also potentially create and support up to 2000 local jobs, including apprenticeships to help advance new green building skills.

Funding will also be used for environmental education projects and boosting the energy efficiency of existing schools - including a new low carbon sixth form for the Cooper School in Bicester and retrofitting of primary schools and libraries in Whitehill-Bordon.

Housing Minister John Healey, said: 'Green living isn't just about homes. That's why this cash will also help transform local schools and create new transport links and energy sources. By the time the eco-towns are finished green living will already be a way of life for these communities.'

The Government announced of the locations with potential to be an eco-town last July in the Planning Policy Statement: eco-towns. Schemes must now submit planning applications for local authorities to determine through the planning process, and this will provide further opportunities for consultation on the proposals.

The £60m funding was pledged by John Healey last year, and today he allocated the funding for the councils after a competitive bidding process. The Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) has pledged £2.5m to support this fund for greener schools.