Tories withdraw eco-town support

The Conservatives have withdrawn their support for eco-towns, claiming their environmental qualities have been "watered down".

Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps (pictured) said on Monday that the government's plan for new green housing developments had ignored the views of local communities, threatened protected land, and would not meet the highest sustainability standards.

He also said ministers were backtracking on the number of new towns to be built, with a commitment now to only "up to 10".

"So-called 'eco-towns' have become an eco-con mired in controversy and utterly discredited," Shapps said.

"Gordon Brown's brainchild has descended into a farce. We cannot support a scheme that's been exposed as a green sham and won't come even remotely near to building large numbers of genuinely eco-friendly homes. The
public have been duped.

"I think it is fair to say that eco-towns will now never see the light of day. They will become the government's great white elephant.

"Gordon Brown and Caroline Flint should do everyone a favour and perform one of their characteristic u-turns and ditch them."

Meanwhile the Campaign to Protect Rural England, which was on Monday holding a protest outside Downing Street to lobby against the government's plans, said it had also changed its mind about eco-towns.

"To begin with, CPRE supported the eco-towns initiative. Who wouldn’t object to exemplar schemes built to high environment standards which provide the affordable homes the nation desperately needs?" head of planning Marina Pacheco said.

"But we now believe we have been led astray. What will this programme will deliver?

"It appears increasingly to be about spin with very little substance."

However housing minister Caroline Flint pointed to a new a poll conducted by YouGov for her department which she said had found "clear support in favour of eco-towns".

The poll showed that 46 per cent of people supported plans, compared with only nine per cent who opposed them.