Ministers push higher standards for eco-towns

By Jim Pickard
Published: July 25 2008 01:36

Ministers sought to head off the chorus of criticism over their proposed eco-towns by putting forward new standards that would ensure high levels of green space, affordable housing and transport links.
Caroline Flint, housing minister, said that at least one worker per household in the new schemes should be able to get to work by walking, cycling or using public transport.

Whether this is genuinely radical is open to question, given that developers could place a scheme 15 miles from the nearest town and still claim it is “cycleable”. Nor is it possible to compel residents to get out of their cars – even if alternative, greener methods of transport are available.
But Ms Flint believes she can ensure that half of all journeys from the 10 new eco-towns can be made sustainably. She wants the average home on the developments, each of which will have thousands of houses, to be within a 10-minute walk of public transport and neighbourhood services.
The government is on the back foot after lawyers for the Local Government Association suggested its eco-towns could be “unlawful” in bypassing local authorities. It insists all 10 projects, to be picked from a shortlist of 15 drawn up in April, will have to go through councils’ planning departments.
Cynics have also pointed out that the green standards, which all housing will have to meet, are not very stringent, given that by 2016 all new homes in Britain will have to be “zero-carbon”.
Few of the schemes are likely to be built before then, with developers staring at the worst housing crash for decades.
Developers of eco-towns will have to provide a minimum of 30 per cent affordable housing and 40 per cent green space – neither of which is much higher than a typical development.
The Royal Town Planning Institute said the standards announced on Thursday should be the “minimum” that should be demanded of any new development.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008