Eco towns really don't need charge of celebrity brigade

Aug 15 2008 Agenda

After Germaine Greer became the latest celebrity to criticise plans for eco-towns – two of which are planned at Long Marston in Warwickshire and Curborough in Staffordshire – Accord Housing Association chief executive Dr Chris Handy says it’s time to forget celebrity spin and focus on facts.

This country needs three million new homes by 2020. That’s three million. This statistic is as inescapable as it is staggering.

The changing demographics of this small island are forcing us to make tough choices about all sorts of issues. And when faced with difficult decisions it is easy to let emotion and rhetoric cloud our judgment.

The current debate about Government plans for eco-towns have aroused understandable anger in the communities which are likely to be affected.

What we really need is a rational debate about how we meet this need for new homes while fulfilling our obligations to climate change – not battle lines, entrenched positions and the charge of the celebrity brigade .

There is a real danger that the vociferous few – including a powerful lobby of celebrity opponents such as Germaine Greer– are able to drown out the discussion.

Germaine Greer’s claim that “New houses are now universally horrible, and eco-houses are the most horrible of the lot” is palpably not true.

For example, our own Scandinavian timber eco-homes in Redditch are spacious, elegant and loved by the people who live in them.

Many other housing associations are developing superb low carbon housing. I am not sure what research Ms Greer did, but we would be delighted to show her any number of examples which don’t upset her aesthetic sensibilities.

Perhaps worse, the involvement of high-profile opponents like Ms Greer – whose fame rather than expertise guarantee a national platform - risks lowering the overall level of debate about the most serious challenges facing our country today.

Formulating national housing policy and our response to these formidable challenges on the basis of whether actors, musicians or indeed Ms Greer happen to think eco-homes are ‘ugly’ or a bad idea does a disservice to the thousands of families who have a desperate need for affordable housing right now.

It’s time to put celebrity to one side and have an informed and rationale debate about how we, as a society, address that very real need.

A recent YouGov poll found that in fact there is overwhelming support among the general population for eco-towns. That’s because, when one is able to consider it dispassionately, it makes real sense as a concept.

There is a desperate shortage of affordable housing, with young families and first time buyers in particular struggling to find homes in which to live. We as a society have a duty to meet that need. Both housing associations and developers are working hard to maximise the use of inner-city sites for housing.

The cold fact is that there is nothing like enough brownfield land in this country to accommodate the 3 million homes that we need in the next 12 years.

Although there are clear variations in both the quality and environmental provenance of the eco-town bids, if we accept that we have to find space in semi-rural settings, the fundamental principle of building new homes in a way which minimises the environmental impact is a good one.

The idea of eco-towns helps us to consider how to meet the demand for new homes in a creative and strategic way which delivers a new vision of housing where our impact on the environment is minimised and even, in some cases, enhances the area.

At the end of 2007 Accord Housing Association’s management team unanimously agreed to attempt to become the ‘Greenest Housing Association in the Country’ and we have been working hard to achieve that goal in recent months.

Our decision to become a partner in one of the eco-town bids – “Pennbury” in Leicestershire – was based on both our experience in developing eco-homes in Redditch and our conviction that the vision of the proposer, the Co-operative Group, to deliver a genuinely sustainable settlement was an exciting blueprint for the future of housing in this country. A vision that was genuinely green, sustainable and inspiring.

Our homes in Redditch, made from sustainable timber, cost about the same to build as traditional houses but use 50 per cent less energy – much less where solar panels are added.

Crucially, they are hugely popular with local people and a source of pride in the town. Although this is a small scheme by comparison to the eco-towns proposed today, it shows that we have learned the lessons from the past and can deliver not just the homes that people need, but the housing that they want – and in a way which protects and indeed enhances the environment around us.

We also see that continental colleagues have been successfully building eco-towns for years.

In places like Malmo and Frieburg there are inspiring real life examples of how we can deliver new and exciting models of mass-market housing in ways which don’t involve millions of tons of concrete being poured across our green and pleasant land.

The Co-operative Group has been working hard to talk to local people about its ideas for creating a community which balances the needs of people for things like transport, shopping and leisure and the paramount consideration of the surrounding environment.

Other eco-town bidders have been working equally hard in their own efforts at genuine consultation. Despite this, I worry that the debate has failed to focus on the facts or delve into the detail.

Too often arguments driven by emotion dominate the debate in the area of public opinion. And when that happens, the facts can get lost.

If we accept that there is no alternative to building at least in part on some Green Belt or open land, then surely all of our energies should be focused on debating how that actually happens to ensure that we take this opportunity.

People are right to be concerned and all of those involved in bids need to have their plans held up to the closest scrutiny and to work with local communities to address their fears and concerns.

The Government task force on eco-towns has already exposed all the remaining bids to the most rigorous scrutiny and they were all, without exception, taken to task to a greater or lesser degree on specific aspects of the bid.

We must ensure that all of the successful bids deliver the vision that as a society we want. But make no mistake – we need eco-towns. Unless of course, we are happy to sit back and let some of those most in need continue to find a place to call their own.

Now is the time for innovation, not emotion.