Eco-town policy clarified

Planning minister Caroline Flint has reassured Parliament over key issues surrounding the Government's eco-town initiative, including how the regional planning regime will deal with individual proposals and the role of the Homes and Communities Agency.

She explained that some eco-town proposals related to locations which were already the subject of consideration under the current regional spatial strategy (RSS) process.

"We expect the RSS reviews announced in the Housing Green Paper to test the longer-term issues that arise from the eco-town proposals - such as the ultimate size of new settlements," she told MPs in a written answer.

The minister also confirmed that the Homes and Communities Agency, due to be created next year would be able to take a leadership role in helping to deliver some of the eco-towns with public and private partners, as English Partnerships is doing at Northstowe, an early prototype eco-town in Cambridgeshire.

"When the Homes and Communities Agency is established we would expect it to play a major role in supporting local authorities, and work with bidders to review and refine detailed proposals as they are developed," she wrote in another Commons written answer.

She stressed there were no current proposals to hold another round of the eco-towns process and reiterated that schemes would be subject to planning permission.

Promoters would have to provide "full details of their environment statement, and address issues such as design, the impact of the proposed development on the landscape and neighbourhood, the transport system, public services, infrastructure and benefits to the community," she told MPs.

Read the Commons Hansard report (4 June, columns 983-984W)

Roger Milne

12 June 2008