Encouraging property development and lowering carbon emissions: a shortlist has been drawn-up for 'eco-towns' on UK land
Concerns for the environment coupled with the housing shortage have witnessed a radical approach to UK land use planning, but plans for up to ten 'eco-towns' by 2020 are not universally popular, writes Alex Way.
In 2007 the Government set-out its plans for a number of 'carbon-neutral' towns of between 5 and 20,000 new homes, known as 'eco-towns'. These eco-towns were originally envisaged to be delivered on Brownfield UK land (ie industrial development land) and 'surplus' public-sector UK land sites, but as plans have evolved, some Greenfield UK land is also now under consideration. Whether you regard eco-towns as a genuinely progressive approach to land planning in 21st century Britain, or merely an attempt by the Government to be seen to be 'doing something' about the inaffordability of the property market (conveniently dovetailing with a demonstration of its environmentally-friendly credentials), will not alter the fact that eco-towns on English land appear to be moving closer to becoming a reality.
A shortlist has now been drawn-up of potential UK land development sites to accommodate these proposed eco-towns, to which we will turn presently. However, first let us put the proposed eco-towns in context of the total requirement for new homes on UK land to 2020. John Prescott originally set-out a housing requirement of 2.5 million new homes which was raised to 3 million homes by former Housing Minister Yvette Cooper. This equates to development land capable of accommodating 250,000 homes being awarded UK land planning permission every year for the next twelve years.
Plans for eco-towns extend to ten in total, each comprised of up to 20,000 homes. Eco-towns will therefore deliver, at most, 200,000 new homes on UK land by 2020. The remaining 2.8 million new homes, according to the Government, can be realised on Brownfield UK land, although many doubt the veracity of this claim. That fairly significant tracts of Greenbelt UK land may need to be released for residential property development purposes to deliver the housing-target is perhaps too sensitive an issue for the Government to openly acknowledge.
In fairness, the current Housing Minister - Caroline Flint - has acknowledged that UK land planning permission has been awarded to Greenbelt sites in Cambridge which had previously been ineligible as development land, but not without adding the caveat that other sites in Cambridge have been reclassified to maintain the equilibrium. At any rate, the wider point is that eco-towns will make only a modest contribution to the overall house-building programme on UK land to 2020 (ie less than 10%). That does not mean, however, that they are not attracting their critics: the building of entire new towns on UK land for the first time since the 1960s is unlikely to be as smooth as the Government had planned.
On the shortlist of fifteen potential development land sites are several proposed eco-towns in the region of 15,000 homes: Marston Vale and New Marston in Bedfordshire is one such. A mix of sites (currently classified as Brownfield UK land ) along the east/west rail line to Stewartby and Millbrook could be used as development land to accommodate some 15,400 new homes, of which 2,000 would be affordable. In Pennbury, Leicestshire, proposals for a new town consisting of 15,000 homes (on sites currently classified as Brownfield UK land, Greenfield UK land and 'surplus' public sector land) have also made it onto the shortlist.
Yet it is not necessarily the plans for the largest eco-towns which are the focus of opposition. Proposals in relation to a new town of 6000 homes on a former Royal Engineers' depot several miles south-west of Stratford-upon-Avon, 'Middle Quinton', have met with opposition from locals, (who incidentally know the area as Long Marston). They claim with respect to the proposals that there is a lack of local services and transport infrastructure, that the area is in no need of regeneration, and that property development on such a scale would be damaging to the local environment.
About the Author: Dietrich Elliot is a Land Investment expert who generously shares his expertise with novice UK Land investors. For more information about the opportunities and pitfalls in UK Land investment please visit http://www.land-investment-uk.com
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