Labour's eco-towns 'won't be as green as promised'

The Government's 'Soviet-style' initiative to build homes across the south east will be far less green than promised, the Tories claimed last night.

Housing spokesman Grant Shapps said the 10 new 'eco towns' would be built to lower environmental standards than developments built elsewhere - even though the entire reasoning behind them is to limit damage to the planet.

He said the policy had 'descended to the sort of farce' seen with the introduction of home information packs.

The Government is considering 15 proposals for the new eco towns, which will aim to tackle both the housing shortage and the problem of climate change.

But Mr Shapps said the project would only deliver a tiny fraction of the homes needed to meet the national shortage - just 75,000 by 2016.

He said more homes would be built working with local communities rather than pushing the monolithic scheme through from Whitehall.

During a debate on eco-homes in the Commons yesterday, Mr Shapps said: 'The simple fact is more homes can be produced when you work with communities rather than coming up with large, centrally-driven, Whitehall-driven, top-down, Soviet-style planning from the centre.

'That is what this plan has come down to - all this fuss, bother and kerfuffle for just 75,000 homes, because it sounds like the Government are doing something green. In fact, they are not green at all.'

He said many of the new homes would be of a much lower standard than the zero-carbon homes being built in other developers.

Homes are rated on a 'green' scale from one to six on measures such as how energy efficient they are and how much water they use.

Mr Shapps said many eco-town homes would only be built at level three on the Government's sustainability code.

But after 2016, all homes, wherever they are built, must comply with level six, meaning they are zero carbon.

He said allowing the so-called green homes to be built at level three was the 'greatest farce'.

'When that happens, these eco-towns will be built at a lower environmental level than the houses that will in any case be built at the same time in 2016. The entire project is now looking rather shabby to say the least.'

Mr Shapps said there was 'very little chance' of the projects proceeding through to being built and said it was 'logistically impossible' to build the scale of homes laid down by the Government. He said the plan was 'falling apart' and ministers should scrap it.

His opposition to plans for eco-towns was mirrored on the Tory backbenches, with one MP saying green fields would be concreted over because of 'diktats' from Whitehall.

Tory Nadine Dorries said the Marston Vale project in her Mid Bedfordshire constituency would just be a commuter town for 40,000 people who would travel to London every day to work.

'There are no jobs in the area. People are going to have to commute to London. They are going to get into their cars. What is sustainable about 40,000 people having to travel 50 miles into London?'

But housing minister Caroline Flint said: 'Eco-towns offer us a unique opportunity not only to address the housing shortage and to tackle climate change, but also to seek to trigger economic growth across a whole area.

'The fact is that we need homes, but we need cleaner, greener homes and built in more sustainable communities. That's my ambition and that's what I'm going to try and deliver.'

Later she denied Mr Shapps claims that the new eco-towns would not be green, saying it was intended they should be zero carbon.