Fierce opposition forces Brown to shorten eco-towns shortlist

Gordon Brown faces an embarrassing climbdown over his plans to build a series of "eco-towns" after the Government conceded it would accept a drastically reduced shortlist of suitable locations.

The Prime Minister's target of creating 10 new carbon-neutral communities to ease the housing shortage was one of his most ambitious policies when he succeeded Tony Blair. The settlements, the first new towns built in Britain for 40 years, would have to meet the highest standards of sustainability, with low- and zero-carbon technology, efficient recycling and water systems and good public transport. They would have to consist of between 30 and 50 per cent social housing, with inhabitants having no need for a car, allotments for growing their own food and green spaces in which to relax.

But fierce local resistance to some of the proposed towns, in addition to a flagging property market and housebuilding industry, has forced officials to pick a shortlist of five sites out of 12 put forward by developers. There is no guarantee all five will be built, which would leave Mr Brown's pledge to create 10 such communities in tatters.

One expert who advised ministers on the proposals said the admission was "unsurprising" because many of the plans remained vague.

Grant Shapps, the shadow Housing minister, said the diminishing shortlist was proof of Labour's folly, adding: "This plan was all about grabbing headlines. Originally, Gordon Brown doubled his target of eco-towns from five to 10, so this is a complete U-turn. It is an admission that they got this whole process wrong.

"They have taken what sounded like a good idea and created a top-down plan that has angered local people. It has left them with egg on their faces."

There were 16 applications on the first list, drawn up last April. While four dropped out, several others had had to switch to more suitable sites. A panel set up to advise ministers on the green credentials of each application raised concerns that some developers were trying to "dress up long-standing projects in green clothing" to speed them through the planning process.

In November, the Government's own assessment suggested that only one of the 12 sites shortlisted earlier, the former RAF Coltishall airfield near Norwich, was "generally suitable". The updated shortlist, to be published in the spring, has not yet been finalised. One location under threat is a plan by the Co-operative supermarket and property group to build 12,000 homes at Pennbury, near Leicester. A report by independent planning consultants, commissioned by four local authorities, said the scheme was unworkable, economically unsustainable and "fundamentally weak".

Protesters including Tony Henman, father of the tennis player Tim Henman, have said that plans for a 15,000-home eco-town at Weston Otmoor, Oxfordshire, are flawed because of the lack of jobs in the area, poor transport links and the countryside that would be destroyed to build it.

Mr Henman's protest group has joined another that opposes the construction of an eco-town at Long Marston, Warwickshire, to take the Government to court over the policy.

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said: "If the quality is not there, we will not feel we will have to go ahead with the full 10. We are looking to accept a shortlist of five to 10 locations."

Other schemes intended to raise the number of low-carbon building projects have also faltered. In his last pre-Budget report as Chancellor, Mr Brown announced a £15m scheme to build hundreds of zero-carbon homes by waiving stamp duty on properties which qualified. But experts said the Government's restrictive definition of "zero-carbon" meant that only 15 new homes qualified for the tax windfall in its first year.