Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 23.5 Proposals for delivering 2 million new homes by 2016
• 1.6 million homes already allowed for in existing Regional Spatial Strategies and
plans now in place including around 650,000 in Growth Areas supported by the
Sustainable Communities Plan
• 150,000-200,000 additional homes in the new round of RSS (or partial reviews)
and plans now under consideration
• 100,000 extra homes in 45 towns and cities which comprise the 29 Growth Points
• An additional round of New Growth Points delivering around 50,000 new homes
• Five new eco-town schemes [later increased to ten] providing 25,000-100,000
new homes.
Source: DCLG 2007e Homes for the Future
distributed across a number of English regions outside London with the exception of
the three most northern regions. This extra provision was secured in response to the
offer of additional funding for authorities who were prepared to accept increases over
their current plans. (On average the rate of growth at these places is being increased
by about a third.)
A revised Growth Fund has been established for the three years 2008/09-2010/11
which will provide £732m of support for mainly capital expenditure to the three newer
Growth Areas (i.e. excluding Thames Gateway) and the Growth Points. Instead of
funding individual projects the Fund will take the form of a non-ring-fenced grant. For
the individual Growth Points this is worth around £10m per 10,000 additional homes
provided.
A second, and more radical, element was the announcement of a competition to
build a number of new 'eco-towns'.
Eco-towns are a major opportunity for local authorities, house-builders,
developers and registered social landlords to come together to build small new
towns …. Uniquely they offer the opportunity to design a whole town - businesses
and services as well as homes - to achieve zero carbon development and to use
this experience to guide other developments across the country.
(DCLG 2007c)
The competition generated 57 submissions from which 15 have been short-listed.
A summary of each bid plus proposals for taking forward the eco-towns initiative were
published for consultation in April 2008 and the Government expects to announce up
to ten successful projects later in the year (DCLG 2008b).
Although the environmental standards being sought from this initiative are
laudable, the forms of 'eco-town' being proposed and the manner in which they are
being taken forward outside the 'plan-led' system is controversial. The initiative is
really a 'back-door' means of accelerating housing provision still further with the eco-
credentials cloaking proposals at locations which in most cases would not normally be
favoured for development. In particular the transport implications of relatively small
settlements at some distance from main urban areas imply a degree of commuting and
other longer-distance travel which appear to be inherently unsustainable.
 
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