Eco Towns

Purpose

This Policy Position Statement discusses the role of Eco-Towns in leading zero-carbon development in the UK and sets out CIWEM's position on this.

CIWEM's position on Eco-Towns:

1. CIWEM is pleased that the Government is encouraging the development of new zero-carbon communities which have the potential to be well planned and attractive places to live.  However, CIWEM considers that Eco-towns are not the right format for such development.
2. CIWEM considers that within the timescale for the construction of Eco-towns, all new housing should be built to the standards being described.  Eco-towns will contribute less than 5% of the new housing the Government claims is required by 2020.
3. CIWEM considers that a more effective way of delivering the environmental, social and economic targets highlighted in the Eco-towns proposals would be to focus on existing towns and cities.  Improved infrastructure, facilities and housing in areas of higher population density are likely to deliver greater improvements.
4. There is a real challenge concerning the environmental performance of existing housing stock which is currently receiving insufficient emphasis.  There is a risk that initiatives such as Eco-towns will divert attention from such issues.
5. CIWEM considers that building eco-towns in the countryside, even on previously used sites, risks creating even more new 'dormitory towns' for existing employment and economic centres.  Again, a focus on existing towns and cities would avoid this problem.
6. CIWEM does not consider that there is a need for exemplar projects of this kind, and that there is already sufficient knowledge and appreciation of what is required to build low-environmental impact housing and communities.  It is essential that lessons are also learned from previous experience with New Towns.
7. CIWEM asserts that construction of zero-carbon developments with appropriate infrastructure is only part of the challenge.  There would remain a major challenge to ensure that all such facilities were used by the occupants.  Zero-carbon development then needs low-carbon residents.

The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) is the leading professional body for the people who plan, protect and care for the environment and its resources, providing educational opportunities, independent information to the public and advice to government. Members in 97 countries include scientists, engineers, ecologists and students.

Context

The UK Government officially announced the Eco-towns concept in September 2007 alongside the Housing Green Paper, when it published its Eco-towns prospectus.  Eco-towns are proposed as a response to three challenges of climate change, the need to live more sustainably and the need (as set out by the 2004 Barker Review) to increase housing supply. The Eco-towns prospectus stated that:

"Eco-towns will be small new towns of at least 5-20,000 homes.  They are 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.  The key features we want to achieve are:

(i) places with a separate and distinct identity but good links to surrounding towns and cities in terms of jobs, transport and services;

(ii) the development as a whole to achieve zero carbon and to be an exemplar in at least one area of environment technology;

(iii) a good range of facilities within the town including a secondary school, shopping, business space and leisure;

(iv) between 30 and 50 per cent affordable housing with a good mix of tenures and size of homes in mixed communities; and

(v) a delivery organisation to manage the town and its development and provide support for people, businesses and community services"

The Government recommended that its Code for Sustainable Homes should be used as a guide on sustainability issues, with the developments having to meet the higher levels of standards in the Code (level 4 initially and level 6 after 2016, at which point all new housing will be required to meet this level).  It urged prospective developers to use innovative, town-scale generation of renewable energy; demonstrate excellence in one particular aspect of environmental sustainability e.g. energy, waste, or water systems; be water efficient; integrate measures to enhance biodiversity; and use low-impact construction methods.  Architectural design should be of a high standard, learning lessons from previous new-town projects, and wherever possible the towns should be built on surplus public sector or brownfield land.  There should be high quality public transport links to nearby towns to reduce car dependency and the towns themselves should be designed such that they encourage walking and cycling, with priority afforded to public transport and high occupancy vehicles over cars within the towns.  Other targets relating to community, health, land use and employment were set within the prospectus and a range of case studies were set out to illustrate requirements.

The Government appealed for local authorities or groups of authorities to submit expressions of how eco-towns could contribute to increased housing supply in their areas, and potential developers to submit proposals for the new settlements.  In April 2008 a shortlist of 15 candidate locations for eco-towns was published for consultation.  This shortlist and consultation would be used to identify up to ten proposals to be taken forward.

Key Issues

Eco-towns have the potential to deliver high quality and well planned housing. The Eco-towns concept together with the proposed sites submitted by developers have received a mixed response, reflective of the varying quality of the proposals the Government received.  A large number of the proposals have attracted local opposition from people who would be affected.  However, the eco-towns concept has been welcomed by critics who claim that that they draw more favourable comparison with the garden cities of the past as opposed to the more recent new-towns and thus have the potential to deliver genuinely positive living environments for those who inhabit them.  The requirements set out by Government, if adhered to, should ensure that this is the case, and are welcomed by CIWEM.  Many of the poor quality proposals, some of which included amended versions of previously failed applications by developers for badly conceived settlements, have been removed from the shortlist.

Eco-towns constitute a very small proportion of the housing stock required and thus risk making a very limited improvement to the overall standard of UK housing stock.  They will be constructed between now and 2020 (although the intention is that they will be designed so they can continue to grow), providing a theoretical maximum of 200,000 new homes (although the actual number is likely to be much less as it is unlikely that 10 towns of 20,000 homes will be built - the majority of shortlisted sites are for less than 10,000 homes). Meanwhile, other new development (the Government is seeking 3 million new homes by 2020) will take place to a far lower environmental standard.  New housing outside eco-towns will not be required to meet the higher levels of the Code for Sustainable Homes until 2016.

Many proposed locations for Eco-towns risk becoming 'dormitories' for other larger conurbations. Whilst the Eco-towns prospectus states that Eco-towns should provide business and employment opportunity for their own residents, they are also advised to have good public transport links to nearby economic hubs.  Intentions may be well meaning in this context but there is a real risk that the new settlements would simply become desirable dormitories for people who work in larger settlements nearby.  This would mean that car-based commuting would be an attractive proposition, particularly if public transport connections were less convenient for workers at the destination.  In this context, siting new zero-carbon housing within existing towns and cities rather than outside them would appear to be a much more sustainable option, though the Government asserts that siting 3 million new homes in existing towns and cities is simply not possible.

All new housing should be being built to similar standards proposed in the Eco-towns initiative. There are many existing developments throughout the world, which have demonstrated, albeit on a smaller scale, that we already know how to build low environmental impact housing developments.  One of the functions of Eco-towns is to act as exemplars for later developments.  It is questionable whether this will be needed  by 2016 or 2020, by which time all new developments could be zero-carbon and designed to a similar standard.

Retro-fitting existing housing stock and developments represents an equal challenge. Much is made of the importance of building zero-carbon new developments.  Eco-towns and the Code for Sustainable Homes will help to deliver on this requirement, although in insufficient quantity and too slowly.  However, there are approximately 27 million existing houses in the UK, many of which have very poor environmental performance.  Considering that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from housing accounts for around 27% of the UK's total emissions, improving the efficiency of existing stock would make a significant contribution to meeting the Government's targets on CO2 reduction.  Building new homes emits considerably more carbon than does regenerating old ones, according to the Empty Homes Agency. However, there are little in the way of meaningful initiatives at present to tackle this problem.

Conclusion

CIWEM welcomes moves by the Government to improve the environmental credentials of new housing.  However, we do not consider that the Eco-towns as proposed will make a significant enough contribution to improving the quality of housing which is to be built by 2020 (3 million homes).

CIWEM contends that Eco-towns in their current form risk being more of a distraction from the scale and nature of issues we face regarding the environment, housing and the economy and that by focusing effort on existing towns and cities the government and its agencies can better achieve social cohesion, environmental and economic sustainability, as well as the homes and jobs that people require.  CIWEM encourages the government to improve existing housing stock and the fabric of existing towns and cities rather than focusing on a small number of what will effectively be demonstration projects, at a time when the knowledge already exists regarding how to build in an environmentally responsible manner.

It is likely that the Eco-towns will provide less than 5% and nearer 2% of the 3 million new houses which the Government claims are required by 2020.  The establishment of a level playing field for developers through ambitious statutory requirements for all new housing in the short-term, alongside equally ambitious targets for the retrofitting of existing housing stock through attractive and well-publicised incentives for current homeowners would be a far more effective way of meeting the environmental challenge our existing and future housing stock presents.

September 2008

Note: CIWEM Policy Position Statements (PPS) represent the Institution's views on issues at a particular point in time. It is accepted that situations change as research provides new evidence. It should be understood, therefore, that CIWEM PPS's are under constant review, and that previously-held views may alter and lead to revised PPS's.