by Chris McLaughlin
The Government is beating the retreat on its flagship “eco towns” plan in the face of widespread public opposition and expert doubts over their green credentials.
Housing minister Margaret Beckett signalled the move in the Commons this week when she told MPs that plans to build ten eco towns by 2020 are now a “hope” rather than a target.
In evidence to the select committee on communities and local government Ms Beckett also raised doubts over the Government’s overall home building commitment when she referred to plans to construct three million homes by 2020 as “an ambition not a target”.
Mrs Beckett’s remarks followed a leak last weekend to The Observer newspaper which revealed that officials at the Department for Communities and Local Government have concluded that only “one or two” of the shortlisted projects are genuinely viable.
Local residents near the proposed sites have been deriding the plans as straightforward new towns, to be built on greenbelt land and have accused the Government of attempting to exploit public concerns on the environment by tacking on the “eco” label to counter planning objections.
According to The Observer, the Eco Towns Challenge Panel, appointed by ministers to ensure the plans were genuinely green, has reached similar conclusions. Eco towns were a central plank – together with the mass use of electric cars – of Gordon Brown’s vision for the environment. In his first speech to Labour conference as Labour leader he doubled to ten – one in each region – the target number.
But in her first speech as housing minister to the Home Builders Federations’s annual conference this month, Mrs Beckett failed even to mention the projects.
