Eco-town proposals 'might be illegal'

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The government’s approach to eco-towns is "deeply flawed" and wide open to legal challenges, the Local Government Association has warned, but the Department for Communities and Local Government has poured cold water over the claims.

The LGA urged the government to take a new approach to developing environmentally friendly housing after lawyers revealed that the government’s current approach is open to serious legal challenge. John Steel QC and James Strachan said there were "sound grounds" for seeking judicial review of the government’s eco-towns programme.

They said: "We are of the opinion that the government’s proposed promotion of eco-towns through a new Planning Policy Statement (PPS) is contrary to the basic principle – expressed through the planning legislation - of the plan-led system of development control. This conflict is all the more acute because the concept of an eco-town does not appear to be materially different from the concept of providing housing in new settlements in an environmentally sustainable way, something which is already recognised in PPS3 on Housing.

"There therefore does not appear to be any compelling justification or rationale for seeking to promote eco-towns outside the existing statutory plan-led system, other than the government’s wish to avoid the system due to the need for proper scrutiny, which takes time. We consider that the proposed eco-town PPS is likely to be unlawful, [since] on all the information before us we conclude that it will be promoting a policy and process which would be inherently flawed."

The lawyers added that by relying on the PPS policy, the government is trying to "circumvent the normal plan-led process".

Outgoing chairman of the LGA Sir Simon Milton also described the government’s stance on eco-towns as "deeply flawed", adding: "While we are in favour of tackling the housing crisis by building thousands of extra homes, some of them in developments with the highest environmental standards, we don’t think this is the right way to do it. Eco-towns must be delivered without bypassing the planning processes and ensure that new developments have good transport connections alongside the schools, health and leisure facilities which are needed to create places where people would want to live."

But a Department for Communities and Local Government spokesman said the government "absolutely disagreed" with the LGA's claims and reckoned the legal advice must have been obtained through "a misrepresentation of our policy".

"We have made it absolutely clear throughout that eco-towns will be different," he said, "and will have higher environmental standards than a normal development and the applications will also have to be considered through the normal planning process."

Arun District Council leader Gillian Brown expressed her delight that the "fundamental flaws" of eco-towns have been highlighted by legal experts.

"I, and many others, have spent a lot of time raising these issues both on a local and a national scale," she said, "but the Department of Communities and Local Government has refused to listen. Now they surely do not have a choice. Hopefully, we [will] now see a change in attitude from the government, who must surely be forced to reconsider the whole eco-town project."