Institute seeks clarification on eco-town policy concerns

Planning, 23 May 2008

The eco-towns programme is becoming more real. With the government's prospectus setting out a shortlist of 15 proposals, the significant challenges that the initiative raises are ever more apparent.

The RTPI supports the government's new homes targets but it has not made a strong policy commitment to eco-towns. This emerges from concerns expressed and broadly shared across the membership that can be summarised in six questions that the current programme does not satisfactorily answer.

These focus on how green the eco-towns will be and the extent to which settlements of the scale proposed can be free-standing, or whether they will inevitably add to trip generation and carbon emissions. There is a question about the quality of the infrastructure and the relative costs and benefits of the substantial provision necessary to serve eco-towns, compared with upgrading services to serve sustainable expansion of existing urban areas.

The extent to which the eco-towns will help meet housing need is unclear. Contributing potentially three per cent of the three million homes, the programme could be too small to make a real difference, but with the potential infrastructure costs and transport considerations, it could be the most economic and environmentally costly part.

There is then a question about the extent to which the eco-towns will drive forward new techniques for low-carbon housing delivery and community design. The initiative could be too large and lack diversity to be a genuine pilot programme that produces a number of lessons.

The relationship with plan-making is a key question in terms of delivery at the regional, sub-regional and local level. The programme's emergence outside the carefully considered land and infrastructure policies and proposals in the development plan could suggest a lack of such considerations.

How they will gain community support is a further challenge, particularly as the initiative has emerged outside the planning system that could exacerbate opposition. Communities are involved relatively late in the decision-making process and some sites are being put forward where previous schemes have been refused. Without answering all these questions, the government has a significant hill to climb.

Rynd Smith is RTPI policy director. To express your view on eco-towns, - please email policy@rtpi.org.uk before 30 May.