Gordon Brown’s flagship project for a series of new eco-towns by 2020 has been dogged by setbacks, forcing Flint to revise the government’s timetable.

Ministers privately admit they failed to anticipate the scale of public hostility to the plans, which lawyers have warned could be open to high court challenges. The Local Government Association believes that bypassing normal planning procedures to create the new towns is unlawful.

Whitehall insiders now say most of the 10 proposals on the shortlist have little hope of being built, with just two or three considered “really serious”.

Cynics have also pointed out that the green standards, which all housing will have to meet, are not very stringent, given that by 2016 all new homes in Britain will have to be “zero-carbon”. ..... Developers of eco-towns will have to provide a minimum of 30 per cent affordable housing and 40 per cent green space – neither of which is much higher than a typical development.

The Department of Communities and Local Government published its eco town progress report on 24th July. The full report can be downloaded from here (the summary page for Hanley Grange is page 28).