Eco Towns in the UK - an innovation?

The government’s Eco-town prospectus, published in July 2007, claims that the towns of Northstowe and Cranbrook are ‘already demonstrating how new settlements can stimulate innovation and provide a large scale test bed for some of the new technologies needed to achieve zero carbon.’ The two towns, though not officially part of CLG’s proposed Eco-town plan, are currently in construction and have been designed to utilise some environmentally-friendly technologies, such as photovoltaic panels and microgeneration.

However, in truth many of these technologies have been around for several years, if not decades, and can be seen in completed developments across Europe and North America. Students of architecture have been schooled in the principles of environmentally-friendly design for well over ten years now. In fact there are many architectural and engineering practices in the UK that are experts in this field, building ‘green’ buildings all over the world.

What is lacking in the UK is the capacity to supply and maintain these technologies. On a recent visit to a new development by a housing association, I was proudly shown the building’s combined heat and power (CHP) system. The only problem with it being that any teething troubles had to be seen to by a German engineer because the housing association could not find a UK-based company to supply or maintain the system.

The UK does not need innovation or a test-bed for ‘green’ building technologies, we know what works. What we need is the will to use them.