Gordon Brown's controversial eco-towns plan could be unlawful, according to top QCs

Christopher Hope, Whitehall Editor
Telegraph online

One opinion released today by the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England found that the policy could be unlawful because the towns would be able to circumvent normal planning processes.

John Hobson QC, the campaign's honorary standing council, said the Government could find itself open to legal challenges by allowing developers to avoid well-established local development plans.

Pushing ahead with the plans would risk "distorting the plan making process", he said.

The news comes after another QC, John Steel said the plans were "unfair, illogical and unreasonable".

Kate Gordon, the campaign's Senior Planner said: "Communities rely on a robust planning system to guide development to where it is needed most while protecting the countryside.

"CPRE has been urging the Government not to pursue its eco-town policy in its current form. This legal opinion adds to existing doubts over the lawfulness of the Government's approach."

Cllr Margaret Eaton, Chairman of the Local Government Association, added: "Eco-towns can help the country tackle the twin challenges of the housing shortage and climate change.

"We need to build more homes that are environmentally sound, in areas with good transport links and alongside the public services which are needed to create places where people want to live.

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said that it disagreed "entirely" with the claims, and said this was supported the High Court ruling into the first consultation paper.

He said: "A Judicial Review into eco-towns earlier this year, which the Government won on all grounds, concluded that the Government is 'using rather than outflanking the planning system'.

"We have made it absolutely clear throughout that the eco-town promoters whose locations make our final shortlist will have to submit planning applications and these will have to be considered in the same way as any other major development proposal."

An extended consultation into the national planning policy is due to finish at the end of this month.

Last month it emerged that the cost of the Government's eco-towns programme has risen to more than £3 million before a single home has been built.

A third of the cash, £960,700, was spent on PR and communications alone. A further £820,000 was spent on local authority assessments and £ 20,000 on "financial assessments''.

The Government also spent nearly £80,000 on a website about eco-towns.