UK Eco-town Process Running into Problems; But Still Getting Submissions

Great Britain’s Eco-towns initiative is a result of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s previous commitment to build five (subsequently changed to ten) zero-carbon eco-towns should he become Prime Minister. These towns of up to 15 000 homes are meant to be built on unused brownfield land such as former industrial sites.

The initiative is meant to respond to the UK’s housing shortage, as well as help partially fulfill climate change commitments. It is also meant to be an opportunity for housing developers to change the way they do business, and work with the proposed site’s local communities.

The government’s vision of the eco-towns was that the eco-town should be a:

Large-scale free-standing new settlements that are exemplars of sustainable building and living, with the opportunity to design low and zero-carbon technology from the beginning.

The Government wants to ensure that the delivery of eco-towns makes as much use of the existing infrastructure as possible.

It is encouraged that some, or even many, of the initial bids have proposals for developers to invest towards rail provisions The Government said that it saw eco-towns providing a major contribution to the housing supply and increasing affordability, including up to 50 per cent of affordable housing.

However, some opponents to this initiative claim that the eco-town approach may be illegal.

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According to lawyers working with the Local Governments’ Association, proposals do not follow the current accepted principle of development, by which plans are drawn up by local authorities, rather than the central government. Association Chairman Sir Simon Milton believes:

Ministers must talk to council leaders about adopting a new approach that will deliver development in places where councils and local people agree that eco-towns can work. Eco-towns must be delivered without bypassing the planning processes and ensure that new developments have good transport connections alongside the schools, health and leisure facilities which are needed to create places where people would want to live

Will legal challenges put the eco-town initiative in jeopardy? While that is possible, groups around the country are still submitting proposals and publicizing their interest. For example, the Co-operative Group has submitted a proposal to develop an “energy positive” (capable of producing surplus energy for nearby communities) ecotown at Stoughton, located near Leicester. According to their very positive-sounding publicity materials:

The Eco-town for Leicestershire will be very different to any other town in the UK.

• It will be different at the outset in the way that it is designed. Residents will be directly involved in the town’s design and development through a panel which we will establish before construction work begins.
• It will be different in the way that it is run, giving residents a share in and democratic control over the nature and provision of local services.
• We will ensure that there is a fast, safe and efficient public transport service available for the first occupants of the town so that they are encouraged to make a step change in the transport choices that they make.
• We will ensure that the right range of living accommodation from starter homes through to sheltered accommodation is provided so that people don’t have to move out of the community at key stages of their lives. It will be a genuinely mixed community, with people from all backgrounds living side-by-side.
• We will ensure that the health and well being of the residents of the town is central to its design, focussing on the creation of a place which works well for its residents on all levels.
• We will ensure that the town is designed to foster social and economic sustainability, providing education and employment and boosting the regeneration of the city region.

While I recognize that these are marketing materials, I am sure that I am not the only foreign observer who is interested in watching the development and subsequent success and/or failures of this initiative.

Image Credit: EcoWorldly Archives

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