Minister confirms eco-towns will count towards housing targets

The Government has given the clearest signal yet that the housing development expected in its eco-town programme will count towards local authority future housing targets.

That clarification came from junior planning minister Parmjit Dhanda during a Commons debate on the West Midlands regional spatial strategy.

He told MPs: "We expect eco-towns to contribute significantly to meeting national aims for additional housing and we want to assure local authorities that include an eco-town in their future housing plans that it will count towards future housing targets, which, in most places, are likely to be more stretching."

The minister's comments on eco-towns surfaced as he defended the Government's decision to require further work on phase 2 of the West Midlands regional spatial strategy revision.

Dhanda told MPs that the Government was concerned that the draft RSS fell short of making provision for the number of homes anticipated in the 2004-based household projections.

The minister said that the draft RSS failed to make provision for "the lower end of the initial housing supply range" which was suggested in the national housing and planning advice unit's response to the Government's earlier housing Green Paper.

Earlier Peter Luff MP had described the Government's action, announced in January by communities' minister Baroness Andrews as "one of the most undemocratic and unwarranted interventions in local affairs by a minister that I can recall".

A spokesperson for Communities and Local Government said: "Our population is ageing and more people are living alone, which means new households are growing faster than new homes. If more homes are not built affordability will get worse and the next generation will have nowhere to live.

"The West Midlands Plan will set a vision for the region for the next twenty years to tackle climate change, address its housing shortages and strengthen the regional economy and as part of that there is a rigorous consultation process.

"However, there is real concern that the draft plan as is may be unnecessarily constraining longer-term development which will have implications on the affordability of housing in the region and this is why we have asked for more information to be gathered for the independent panel to examine."

Read the Commons Hansard report (23 April, column 447WH)

Roger Milne

1 May 2008