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Eco-towns are a government-sponsored programme of new towns to be built in England, which are intended to achieve exemplary standards of sustainability.
In 2007, the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) announced a competition to build up to 10 eco-towns.[1] The proposals received support from organisations such as the Town and Country Planning Association but have also attracted controversy and scepticism (see for example Manns 2008).[2]
Initially over fifty eco-town bids were suggested, many of them modified versions of existing housing scheme proposals.[3] 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 was prepared and published on 16 July 2009, describing the standards that eco-towns will have to meet,[4] after a consultation period that ended on 30 April 2009.[5][6]
By 2012, only four sites have been approved, with none completed.[7]
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.[8]
- ^ BBC article on Gordon Brown's eco-towns announcement
- ^ Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research: Manns, J. P. People, Place & Policy, 2:3, 2008, pp. 132–139, Extra.shu.ac.uk
- ^ BBC announcement retrieved 11 April 2008
- ^ CLG standards
- ^ Eco-towns: Living a greener future – consultation paper – Housing – Communities and Local Government Archived 11 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Communities.gov.uk". Archived from the original on 12 February 2009. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
- ^ Bethany Hubbard: "What has happened to the UK’s eco-towns?" in Ecologist, 2 April 2012
- ^ "Garden villages: Locations of first 14 announced". BBC News. 5 January 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2017.