Lib Dems oppose eco-towns plan

The Liberal Democrats have voted to oppose a government scheme to develop so-called eco-towns, claiming the scheme would actually harm the environment.

In a debate on Monday at the party's conference in Bournemouth, a motion to oppose the government's eco-towns policy was supported by the majority of the audience made up of party members and supporters. Despite hearing arguments for and against the motion, only two audience members chose to vote against the proposal and back the government scheme.

Liberal Democrat MPs and councillors who spoke in favour of the motion to oppose the development of eco-towns included shadow housing spokesman Lembit Opik. He claimed that the main problem with the scheme is that it forces central government housing policy on local communities rather than allowing them to develop processes based on local conditions.

"Eco-towns are being foisted on local populations who do not want them," he said.

Opik added that the idea of designated eco-towns was fundamentally misguided and rather than focusing on developing a number of towns designated to be green, the government should concentrate on how to make all the cities and towns in the UK more environmentally sustainable.

"The real eco-towns must not be new towns. The real eco-towns that we need are London, Manchester and Birmingham – towns that exist already and will still be there in 2050," he said.

The government's eco-towns plan was introduced in July 2007, with the Eco-towns Prospectus authored by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The document laid out a plan to introduce "small new towns of at least 5-20,000 homes... intended to exploit the potential to create a complete new settlement to achieve zero carbon development and more sustainable living using the best new design and architecture".

About 15 sites across the UK have been identified as potential areas to develop eco-towns, including Greater Norwich and a region near Leeds City. Up to 10 towns will be built by 2020. The government claims that no new homes will be built on green belt land and at least 30 per cent of the total new houses will be affordable housing.

Despite voting to oppose the eco-towns scheme, some Liberal Democrats did take the floor at the conference to oppose the motion and support the plan.

Ken Reed, Liberal Democrat councilor for Guildford, criticised the wording of the motion to oppose the government scheme.

"What is meant by 'close links to existing settlements'? Does that mean being 10m away, a mile?" he said. "Some supporters of this motion are motivated by good environmental intent... but it doesn't stand up to scrutiny."

Councilor Reed's comments referred to the second line of the motion which claimed that "housing should where possible be on brownfield land, and closely linked to existing settlements".

Other supporters of the motion to oppose the eco-town plan included Liberal Democrate MEP Fiona Hall, who claimed that the main problem with the scheme was that it does nothing to curb the country's carbon emissions.

She added that cutting carbon emissions by 50 per cent – or even 100 per cent as the Liberal Democrats have proposed – by 2050 would be "out of the question" without tackling the C02 contribution from homes which accounts for 25 per cent of the UK's energy use.

"We can go for pretty eco-towns or invest in sustainability for all the housing stock and really slash emissions," she said.