Second Wave of Eco Towns Announced by the Government

Posted under Blog by Ruth

The Housing Minister John Healey has recently announced proposals for new eco towns, pledging to double the money involved to help local councils.

Four locations were first announced in July as meeting the strict zero carbon criteria. Plans for a further six eco communities have been announced to be built by 2020.

There are strict criteria to qualify as an eco town: a development must have 5,000 homes, at least 30 percent of which should be affordable homes for low incomes. The towns must also contain low-carbon buildings, services, energy and transport.

Earlier in the year, Gordon Brown announced that these town would help to combat both climate change and the national housing shortage.

Government plans mean that 10 eco-towns should be built by 2020. However, these towns will be far smaller than the expansive communities that the Government originally had planned.

The Government believes that eco towns will help to promote sustainable living. New homes in the towns will make use of a number of facilities such as water recycling, insulation, solar panels, biomass fuel, double glazing and green gadgets – this may even include electronic bus timetables on kitchen walls to help advise of public free transport.

Healey stated that ‘we are leading the world with these developments which combine affordable housing with new green infrastructures’.