new towns
A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...
to be built in England, which are intended to achieve exemplary standards of
sustainability
Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...
.
In 2007, the
Department for Communities and Local Government
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), formerly the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for housing, communities, local government ...
(CLG) announced a competition to build up to 10 eco-towns. The proposals received support from organisations such as the
Town and Country Planning Association
The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) is an independent research and campaigning charity founded and based in the United Kingdom. It works to enable homes, places and communities in which everyone can thrive. Through its research, tr ...
but have also attracted controversy and scepticism (see for example Manns 2008).
Initially over fifty eco-town bids were suggested, many of them modified versions of existing housing scheme proposals.BBC announcement retrieved 11 April 2008 The eco-town concept and initial locations were subject to consultation by Communities and Local Government ending on 30 June 2008.
A new
Planning Policy Statement Planning Policy Statements (PPS) were UK government statements of national policy and principles towards certain aspects of the town planning framework. In recent years they only applied to England. However, they still exist within the Northern Ir ...
was prepared and published on 16 July 2009, describing the standards that eco-towns will have to meet, after a consultation period that ended on 30 April 2009.
By 2012, only four sites have been approved, with none completed.Bethany Hubbard "What has happened to the UK’s eco-towns?" in ''Ecologist'', 2 April 2012
In January 2017 a new initiative for fourteen Garden Villages and three Garden Towns was announced by Conservative Government. This included West Carclaze in Cornwall which was part of the initial eco-town proposal.
Objectives
The eco-towns programme was intended to offer the opportunity to achieve high standards of
sustainable living
Sustainable living describes a lifestyle that attempts to reduce the use of Earth's natural resources by an individual or society. It is referred to as zero wastage living" or "net zero living". Its practitioners often attempt to reduce their e ...
while also maximising the potential for
affordable housing
Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on affo ...
. Some 30% to 40% of housing in each eco-town is to be allocated as affordable, and made available to the thousands currently on the local housing waiting lists.
The largest will provide up to 20,000 new homes, with officials saying the towns should be "
zero-carbon
Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the "p ...
" developments and should be exemplary in one area of sustainability, such as energy production or waste disposal. The new environmentally-friendly towns - low-energy, carbon-neutral developments built from recycled materials - are intended to be largely car-free, with pedestrian and cycle-friendly environments.
The towns will need to adhere to strict development criteria which were developed by the
Town and Country Planning Association
The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) is an independent research and campaigning charity founded and based in the United Kingdom. It works to enable homes, places and communities in which everyone can thrive. Through its research, tr ...
(TCPA) through 'worksheets' as advice to promoters and planners. The following were published - transport, community development, waste management, green infrastructure and water cycle management, and could be accessed from th TCPA website
Eco-town standards
The standards eco-towns should meet include the following as set out in the 'draft Planning Policy Statement: eco-towns':
* Affordable housing: a minimum of 30% affordable housing in each eco-town
* Zero-carbon: eco-towns must be zero-carbon over the course of a year (not including transport emissions)
* Green space: a minimum of 40% of eco-towns must be greenspace
* Waste and recycling: eco-towns must have higher recycling rates and make use of waste in new ways
* Homes: homes must reach
Code for Sustainable Homes The Code for Sustainable Homes was an environmental assessment method for rating and certifying the performance of new homes in United Kingdom. First introduced in 2006, it is a national standard for use in the design and construction of new homes ...
level 4 or higher (surprisingly not the highest standard available, casting doubt on the credibility of these requirements)
* Employment: at least one job opportunity per house accessible by public transport, walking or cycling (although the standards are silent on how housing developers might guarantee this and it is largely discredited in the current economic crisis)
* Services: there must be shops and a primary school within easy walk of every single home, and all the services expected from a town of up to 20,000 homes
* Transition/construction: facilities should be in place before and during construction
* Public transport: real-time public transport information in every home, a public transport link within ten minutes walk of every home
* Community: there must be a mixture of housing types and densities, and residents must have a say in how their town is run, by governance in new and innovative ways.
There are further standards on water, biodiversity and other issues.
There is a short video about the standards.
The standards are subject to consultation and may therefore change.
In Eco Towns, 32% of the total site will be used for housing and creating villages.
Every Eco Town that is built would have 14,000 proposed jobs such as manufacturing and industrial services.
Sites
On 3 April 2008, the shortlist of fifteen sites for the next phase of public consultations was announced.
The shortlisted sites were:
*
Bordon
Bordon is a town in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It lies in the interior of the royal Woolmer Forest, about southeast of Alton. The town forms a part of the civil parish of Whitehill which is one of two contiguous villag ...
, Hampshire (Army base and existing town)
*
Coltishall
Coltishall is a village on the River Bure, west of Wroxham, in the English county of Norfolk. The village is located within the Norfolk Broads.
History
Coltishall's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for Cohhede's la ...
, Norfolk (
RAF Coltishall
Royal Air Force Coltishall, more commonly known as RAF Coltishall , is a former Royal Air Force station located North-North-East of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk, East Anglia, which operated from 1938 to 2006.
It was a fighter airf ...
airfield)
*
Elsenham
Elsenham is a village and civil parish in north-west Essex in eastern England. Its neighbouring towns include Bishop's Stortford, Saffron Walden and Stansted Mountfitchet.
History
Elsenham is recorded in the ''Domesday Book'' of 1086 as ''Alsen ...
, Essex
*
Ford, West Sussex
Ford is a village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. It is centred south by south-west of Arundel and west of Worthing. The civil parish very gently slopes to the east, where it has the public track alongside the Rive ...
Hinxton
Hinxton is a village in South Cambridgeshire, England.
The River Cam runs through the village, as does the Cambridge to Liverpool Street railway, though the village has no station. Hinxton parish's southern boundaries form the border between Ca ...
and
Duxford
Duxford is a village in Cambridgeshire, England, about south of Cambridge. It is part of the Hundred Parishes area.
History
The village formed on the banks of the River Cam, a little below its emergence from the hills of north Essex. One of t ...
)
*
Fradley Fradley is a village in the Lichfield District, in the county of Staffordshire, England.OS Explorer Map 245: The National Forest :(1:25 000) :
, Staffordshire (
RAF Lichfield
Royal Air Force Station Lichfield also known as Fradley Aerodrome, was an operational training station from 1940 until 1958. It was situated in Fradley, north east of Lichfield, Staffordshire, England. The airfield was the busiest airfield in St ...
)
*
Imerys
Imerys S.A. is a French multinational company which specialises in the production and processing of industrial minerals. It is headquartered in Paris and is a constituent of the CAC Mid 60 index.
Imerys has operations in over 40 countries and ...
, near
St Austell
St Austell (; kw, Sans Austel) is a town in Cornwall, England, south of Bodmin and west of the border with Devon.
St Austell is one of the largest towns in Cornwall; at the 2011 census it had a population of 19,958.
History
St Austell wa ...
, Cornwall. (China Clay quarries)
*
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
city region, West Yorkshire (site to be determined)
*
Manby
__NOTOC__
Manby is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, and lies approximately east from Louth.
Manby contains a village post office. Other amenities, including a primary school, The Manby Arms pu ...
, Lincolnshire
*
Marston Vale
Marston Vale is an area of Bedfordshire. It lies to the south west of Bedford and Kempston, near Junction 13 of the M1 motorway. Historically it was one of the main brickmaking districts in England, home of the London Brick Company, now a division ...
, Bedfordshire
* Middle Quinton, Warwickshire (army depot and business park)
*
Pennbury Pennbury was the working name given to a proposed Eco-towns (UK), eco-town of 15,000 to 20,000 new homes intended to be built on Leicester Airport, four miles from the centre of Leicester. On 16 July 2009, Housing Minister John Healey (politician), ...
, Leicestershire
*
Rossington
Rossington is a civil parish and former mining village in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England and is surrounded by countryside and the market towns of Bawtry and Tickhill.
Geography
Historically part of the West R ...
, South Yorkshire (colliery)
*
Rushcliffe
Rushcliffe is a local government district with borough status in Nottinghamshire, England. The population of the Local Authority at the 2011 Census was 111,129. Its councilRushcliffe Borough CouncilWeston Otmoor, Oxfordshire
* Rackheath, Norfolk. (on outskirts of
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
)
*
North West Bicester North West Bicester (NW Bicester) is one of four eco-towns that were originally given the green light by the government in 2009 to act as showcases for environmentally sustainable communities. It will be a true zero carbon development on the edge ...
, Oxfordshire (proposed alternative to Weston Otmoor site).
Proposals for Curborough in Staffordshire, Hanley Grange in
Cambridgeshire, Coltishall in Norfolk and Manby in Lincolnshire were subsequently withdrawn.
On 16 July 2009, the UK Government announced four successful eco-town bids:
* Whitehill-Bordon, Hampshire
* St Austell and Clay Country, Cornwall
* Rackheath, Norfolk
*
North West Bicester North West Bicester (NW Bicester) is one of four eco-towns that were originally given the green light by the government in 2009 to act as showcases for environmentally sustainable communities. It will be a true zero carbon development on the edge ...
, Oxfordshire
Housing Minister John Healey announced that developers in the four successful locations will be able to bid for a share of £60 million to support local infrastructure. He said he wanted to see at least six second wave areas identified in 2010 and announced up to £5 million available for councils to conduct further planning work on proposals.
As of 2012, no further sites have been approved:
Evidence-base for Eco-towns as Sustainable New Settlements
As part of the Best Practice in Urban Extensions and New Settlements study in 2007, the TCPA had been looking at several urban extensions and new settlements around the country to identify what has changed since the new towns in terms of planning for large scale growth. This work is to inform local authorities who are contemplating growth and to showcase good practice, with reference to community engagement, design, environmental sustainability and masterplanning.
It carried forward a piece of research undertaken with Arup looking at the sustainability criteria for new settlement and urban extension options in the
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
and
Stansted
London Stansted Airport is a tertiary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, northeast of Central London.
London Stansted serves over 160 destinations acro ...
sub regions as part of the East of England draft regional spatial strategy ' Examination in Public' process.
Some key terms of reference from this project are taken from the Barker Review. These include the following:
* Is the site able to support a viable community in terms of facilities and amenities?
* Can it showcase excellent design and sustainable buildings within a good quality environment?
* Is the site linked and supplied with good quality infrastructure – if not what are the transferable lessons to new growth poles?
* What are the linkages to nearby viable settlements and are they appropriate and useful?
Controversy
The plans have proved controversial with campaigners saying the idea is a way to evade normal planning controls and bring forward schemes which have previously been turned down by local authorities as unsuitable. For example, the Ford Eco Town site has previously been rejected by Arun District Council twice. Professor David Lock, architect of the Marston Vale "vision plan" and former Chairman of the
Town and Country Planning Association
The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) is an independent research and campaigning charity founded and based in the United Kingdom. It works to enable homes, places and communities in which everyone can thrive. Through its research, tr ...
and an expert adviser to the Government has made public that the Government plans "to force through eco-towns" by "crashing the planning process". However, last but one Government housing minister
Caroline Flint
Caroline Louise Flint (born 20 September 1961) is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Don Valley from 1997 to 2019. A member of the Labour Party, she attended the Cabinet of the United Kingdom as Minister for Hous ...
and previous incumbent
Margaret Beckett
Dame Margaret Mary Beckett (''née'' Jackson; born 15 January 1943) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Derby South since 1983. A member of the Labour Party, she became Britain's first female Foreign S ...
have repeatedly assured critics that each eco-town proposal will go through the normal planning process. Critics point out however that once the Government has issued a Planning Policy Statement (PPS) designating a site as suitable for Eco Town status, that will then have to be taken into account by local planners and will reduce their ability to reject a scheme for being proposed on green field sites.
Many local residents' groups have argued against the sustainability of locating an eco-town in their proximity, citing poor transport links and building on primarily greenfield and agricultural land. Supporters of proposed eco-towns counter-argue that their districts need more affordable housing and that eco-towns will provide these homes in a comprehensively planned and sustainable way.
Population Matters
Population Matters, formerly known as the Optimum Population Trust, is a UK-based charity that addresses population size and its effects on environmental sustainability. It considers population growth as a major contributor to environmental degr ...
, (formerly known as the Optimum Population Trust), has pointed to a discrepancy between the limited number and size of eco-town schemes and the much larger figure for projected housing need. Supporters counter however that eco-towns will be exemplar settlements, informing future sustainable housing developments for many years.
Poor public transport at the short-listed locations raised concerns that "high levels of car ownership will undermine the rest of the strategy".
Grant Shapps
Grant Shapps (born 14 September 1968) is a British politician who is serving as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy since October 2022. He previously served as Secretary of State for Transport in the Premiership of Bo ...
that funding for the financial year 2010/11 was to be cut by 50%.
In April 2011, the coalition government announced that only one of the proposed eco-towns, Northwest Bicester in Oxfordshire, will now actually be built to the originally proposed standards. The other proposed eco-towns, will only need to be built to meet current building requirement, applied to any new build dwelling.