Warning on eco-town CPO wrangles

Michael Donnelly, PlanningResource, 1 July 2008

"Past experience suggests there could be real difficulties assembling the land needed for eco towns," said Stephen Turnbull, planning partner at the business law firm LG.

"Large scale land assembly normally requires the use of compulsory purchase orders by local authorities, and these are very often contested. In this case local authorities themselves could be opposed and refuse to issue the necessary orders - all of which is likely to result in considerable complexity and delays."

Responding to the government's consultation on eco towns which closed yesterday LG has said it anticipates "significant issues with land assembly for eco towns".

Turnbull continued: "Under current proposals the vast bulk of the land needed for the new eco towns will need to come from the private sector, although I doubt there's ever been a new town built in the UK before on this basis.

"We believe it will be important and probably necessary for significantly more land for eco towns to come from the public sector if these are to have a realistic chance of getting built."